Trial and Error
by InsertDecentNameHere
Summary: English Kate and American Alex are NOT students at Ouran; they go to St Andrews. To be fair to them, they had no intention of getting involved with Ouran, or the Host Club anyway. So how did they get into this? Because they're idiots, that's how.
1. Chapter 1

**Ok, you know the drill let's get on with it!**

"Go get them Alex!" I yelled, jumping high into the air and waving my arms frantically from the small stadium's seating area. "Beat them to a PULP!"

My best friend Alex then graciously took her precious time to turn away from her team huddle to send me the forever loving sign of affection known as 'The middle finger', with a wide grin plastered onto her features as she yelled back "Get the hell off the stand Kate!"

It was the football- no; sorry the soccer finals of the school term; and it had been lead to a final showdown between Sayen International; the 2nd best sports academy in Japan and us, St Andrews; the school 3rd best school in Japan, next to St Lobelia's and Ouran High School, but defiantly famed for its sports program.

So how did our school team even get to these finals anyway? Alex, that's how.

You wouldn't expect the dainty blonde with delicate blue eyes and lightly dotted freckles to be a sports fanatic and overly competitive, but she is. She happens to be the best football-no soccer player I have ever met, being so competitive that she could practically kill anybody that gets into her way of winning.

Still, back onto the subject. The game is practically over now, with a tie. Only one penalty will determine who will win, our team is taking the penalty and is currently trying to decide who should take it.

The group broke up, and much to my surprise, the newcomer to the team walked up to the ball instead of Alex, meaning he will be taking the penalty.

Alex is the best striker on the team, everybody knew that. So why are they letting a newbie take the most important shot of the game?

Still, Alex looked not as angry as she could have been, with only a small frown on her freckled features. If anything it looked like she was judging him instead of sending him death threats.

The guy himself was puny, and looked about as nervous as anybody else in the position. Sweat poured down his young face and he shook violently as he made his way towards the ball. He pushed his dark hair out of his face and made his move.

The opposition got into position, and the guy hit the ball. I swear, at that moment the tension was so thick on that field that it would take a chainsaw to hack it down.

One clean kick, that was all that was needed, and then we would win the game, but of course, fate has never played well for the teams I have supported in the past.

The guy flopped it, and ended up being intercepted by one of Sayen's players. It was all over; in one swift pass and kick, they had scored and we had lost.

I watched Alex's face fall and turn away from the team. I could tell she was more disappointed with them than angry, but I still wouldn't want to be in their shoes at that moment.

COOL TRANSITION

"Sorry about the match Alex" I said, quickly catching up with the blonde as she walked out of the changing rooms and made her way down the road.  
>She remained silent for a while, but as always, eventually she caved in.<br>"I was looking so forward to winning that game too" She said "I really did want to kick those guys' butts for good, you know Kate?"

"Not really" I replied "I'm not like you, remember?"

It was true. Alex looked so delicate with her long blonde hair and blue eyes, though really she was a temperamental and violent as a bulldog while I looked more, practical I guess, with short brown hair and green eyes. I'm average academically, except for languages, which I am proud to be good at, and geography, which I suck at.

Oh and it doesn't help my cause at all when I'm as flat as a board. God happens to give the nice, perfect curves and figure to those that really don't want them, like Alex, who has a rather decent but modest bust and hates it, while missing out those that want them. I'm ok with not having a bust, but having a pair would sometimes really help when I want them.

Just then, Alex stopped walking. We somehow had managed to get into the neighbourhood past ours.

"I swear I've seen this place before" She said, looking at the houses

"Maybe you've walked past it before?" I suggested

"Oh I know!" She exclaimed, snapping her fingers "This place is-"

Alex was then interrupted by a grown woman with red hair and a hell of a lot of makeup jumping her, squealing "Alexandria Greenwood!"

Alex eventually shrugged her off, panting heavily. It looked to me like she could have been crushed to death by that hug.

"Who the hell is that?" I exclaimed, pointing to the redheaded woman now sitting on the floor.

Apparently Alex didn't hear me, and also pointed at the lady, yelling "Ranka! I knew it!"  
>"Who's Ranka?" I asked.<p>

Finally Alex responded to me, sighed and told me "Ranka was one of my old classmates' dad. I came over one time to give her some homework, that's how I recognized the place."

"You remembered?" The woman, or man squealed, her/his eyes turning into sparkles "It was so considerate of you to help out my darling Haruhi back in middle school!"

Alex shrugged "It was nothing really. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Haruhi for a while, how is she?"

Alex had been living in Japan much longer than me; I had only moved here about a year and a half ago, while Alex had moved here with her mom about 3 years ago. I had met her about a year ago, but it still felt strange to know she had lots of friends before me when she came here. Alex in truth was the first friend I made after moving to Japan, and of course my best friend.

"She's doing great! Actually, talking of Haruhi" Ranka said, his/her gaze suddenly darkening into what looked like a devious glare "I need to hand her a note…"  
>Ranka then leapt into a crouching position, turned away from us and looked like shehe was scrawling on a spare piece of paper.

She/he then leapt up off the ground and stuffed the paper into Alex's hand, still with an innocent smile, but it somehow felt intimidating.

"Can you be a darling and give her this?" Ranka asked, giving Alex a wink.

"B-but" Alex protested "I don't' know where-"

"She's in music room 3 in Ouran High School, got it?"

"Still" Alex continued to protest, backing away slightly and pointing to me "My friend Kate here-"

"She can come along!" Ranka insisted grabbing me and pushing myself and Alex back down the street, towards the number 1 school in Japan "And don't think about backing out!" She/he yelled, running away from us "Because I will ask Haruhi if you delivered it!"  
>At that Ranka left us.<p>

"So" I said, waving my hand in front of Alex's face to snap her out of her trance "What are you going to do?"

Alex sighed, and folded the paper into her pocket "I guess we have to deliver it. Ranka can be a real pest sometimes, even if there are good intentions behind those methods"  
>At that, it was decided. Alex and I made our way towards Ouran.<p>

God help us.

**So that's the first chapter!**

**Liked it? Hated it? Please tell!**

**This is a completely new writing area for me, so any criticism and advice would be much appreciated!**

**Special thanks to my awesome BETA reader my_forgotten_rose!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everybody who read and reviewed!**

**So special thanks to ****mormonsrock**** , for the spacing advice****. ****Tbonechick2011**** (Or Jazzy) for the encouraging words ****Rose Thourn**** for the short but sweet compliment and ****Escape to Ouran**** for the shared experience! Without you all, I wouldn't have continued this!**

**And of course, special thanks to my-forgotten-rose for being my BETA. **

We stood outside of the gigantic, overbearing gates of Ouran High School, looking directly above us at the huge clock tower.

I straightened my dark blue jacket and smoothed out my grey skirt.

"I suddenly feel incredibly underdressed" I explained to Alex, who was looking at me with a questioning look.

She snorted at that "No more than I do" She replied "In case you haven't noticed, I'm in worse shape than you by about a mile"

Alex had gotten changed in a rush after the match, and as a result looked pretty much like she had walked into a hedge. Her shirt was partially un-tucked and streaked with grass stains, her jacket also had multiple grass stains and her face was still streaked with mud just underneath her eye from the last game. God only knows how she had managed to keep her hair looking great, being still as clean and shiny as if she had just washed it.

"Why is the school _pink_ anyway?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow "I mean, just a little gay?"

"What's wrong with that?" I demanded, putting my hands on my hips "It's not_ that_ pink, and besides; at least it's interesting. Our school is just bricks, remember?" I'll admit, rich kids had weird taste, but at least it looks jolly, right?

"Fine! Whatever, let's just go and deliver this stupid note" Alex replied with a huff, boldly entering the school campus without even hesitation, and unfortunately dragging me along with her.

_**COOL TRANSITION**_

We had been wondering about the campus for about 20 minutes trying to find 'Music Room 3', though, not with much success.

Not that I minded at all. The campus was huge, with beautifully kept gardens, huge statues and (in my opinion) hilarious dirty-joke water fountains. There was something different at every corner, and I loved it.

I could have stayed there all day if not for Alex. She was getting into such a fit; she hates getting lost you see. To be fair, I hate getting lost too, especially in woods in the dark, it happened to me once in England, and I don't want to repeat the experience.

"Where the hell is this stupid room?" Alex yelled in frustration, letting her legs give way dramatically and sinking to the ground "I just want to go home and practice my stupid d-"

I promptly cut her off by slamming my hand over her mouth. "Stop being such a drama-queen! Why not just ask somebody?"

"You English and your strange concepts" Alex continued to moan "Ask for directions? _Please_"

"Excuse me miss?" I asked a young lady, probably a student who had been walking past us "Do you know how to get to music room 3? We are supposed to go see someone and-"

The girl clapped her hands, her face instantly lighting up at the mention of 'Music Room 3' "Oh! You must be here to see the Host Club!"

"The Host _what_?" Alex demanded, jumping up and striding towards us "_Look_ lady-"

I decided that it would be best not to let Alex open her mouth and do any more insulting, and swiftly clapping my hand over her mouth, much to her muffled protests.

"Ignore her" I said, giving my best impression of a charming smile whilst avoiding the many kicks and English swearing that Alex was throwing at me. "She's a little on edge, what with this _Host Club_ and all." I then proceeded to shut Alex up for good, and kicked her in the ribs "By the way, where can we find this club?"

"That's easy" The girl replied, smoothing out her yellow dress, whilst still looking dignified somehow "Go right, then left down the corridor along the courtyard. From there, you will see two double doors on your right, go up those stairs and there it is! It's got a sign over the door if you need clarification."

"That's fantastic!" I exclaimed "Thank you so much!"

"No worries" She replied, giving a charming smile to both myself and Alex who was spewed across the ground "Are you visiting someone special?"

"Yea" Alex replied, getting off of the ground and sneakily elbowing me in the ribs "Haruhi Fujioka, you know, the scholarship student?"

Strangely enough, the girl's face appeared to blush as she planted her gaze onto the ground, replying "Oh yes, Haruhi is...so nice"

"Well" I said, grabbing Alex "Once again, thanks for the help!"

It was my turn to drag Alex into places now, as I made my way to Music Room 3, following the kind girl's instructions.

"She was nice" Alex commented, wrestling out of my grasp and walking along side me as we made our way down the corridors "I hope all of Ouran can live up to the standard"

"I doubt it" I replied "In England, most of the rich kids were either stupid, rude or too naïve. And if not, they had a weapon on them at all times"

Before we knew it, we had made our way to Music Room 3. For some reason, the baby pink doors made me feel nervous.

"You ready?" I asked Alex

"Hell yea!" She replied, grabbing my shoulders and hauling me in front on the doors.

I had done this routine a thousand times with Alex, when she was ever nervous about entering a room, she would always stick me in front of it and make me open the doors, somehow it calmed her down slightly, so I always went along, and this was no exception. I reached out my hand, and pulled open the giant, baby pink door of Music Room 3.

As soon as I had opened the door, I remember seeing a white light, and being showered in what seemed like rose petals. The next second, there was a group of seven highly attractive teenagers, and what looked like a kid in front of me.

"S-shit" Alex whispered from behind me "You know I don't act cool with attractive guys Kate"

"I told you that you should have presented yourself better!" I whispered harshly to her in retort.

One of the group of boys, a blonde haired guy with what looked like purple eyes stepped towards us, kneeled down and shoved a rose straight into my face

"Please, don't be shy my princesses" He said, in a voice that sort of reminded me of a comp Hollywood star, whilst still appearing seductive. "Welcome to the Ouran High School Host Clu-"

I didn't let him finish his sentence. Nobody calls me a princess and gets away with it.

I didn't even think twice, I lifted my leg, and in one swift movement, kicked the poor guy right in the crotch.

The blonde's face went pure white for a split second, and then he passed out.

**I have always wanted to write a fic where somebody kicks Tamaki in the balls…it was VERY fun to write!**

**How was it? I'm a little worried on making sure the Host Club aren't OOC, so do you guys have any tips?**

**See ya next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for all of the reviews! They really helped me keep going with this!**

**So once again, special thanks for the reviewers: Jazzy, Escape to Ouran, emogirllikes-ANIME, Mormonsrock, Death-the-kitten-Meister and Magicjewel !**

**And of course, my fantablous, amazing, fantasic, beautiful BETA reader: my-forgotten-rose!**

**Sorry it took so long, I had to re-write it 3 times to get the characters right!**

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, kneeling down to check if the poor guy was ok "I am so sorry! Are you alright?"

Alex began to laugh, smirking slightly before kneeling down and prodding the unconscious blonde.

"It finally happened" She said "You killed a man with the crotch kick!"

"I didn't mean to!" I exclaimed "It was only reflexes!"

Somehow both Alex and I had completely forgotten about the 5 other boys on the other end of the room, who were looking down at the scene with a mix of amusement and concern.

"Do you think we should help them?" The one who looked to be the youngest of the group asked, looking up at the tallest member of the group with a questioning look.

"Ah" The tall man replied

This conversation managed to draw my attention away from the unconscious man that I had possibly killed and towards the rest of the guys in the centre of the room. I noticed that Alex had done the same, and was currently going bright red at the sight of them.

"Hi there" I said, raising my hand half-heartedly and trying to calmly smile at the group "Sorry, but I may have killed your…guy" I finished.

Two redheaded guys, which look suspiciously like twins to me suddenly burst out laughing; and not just a light chuckle either. They were properly laughing their heads off, to the extent of clutching their sides and slapping the ground.

"Sorry boss!" They exclaimed between gasps "But this is so. Damn. Funny!"

Alex's strange yet useful temper then kicked into 'Angry' mode, and she stomped up to the twins, giving them the death glare

One of the shorter boys, one with brown hair and extremely feminine eyes separated himself from the group and looked down at the unconscious man at my feet

"Senpai" He asked "Are you alright?"

At this, the blonde somehow felt immediately revitalized, and leapt off of the ground and knelt before the brunette

"My darling Haruhi!" He exclaimed "My beloved daughter truly cares for her father!"  
>At this moment, I swear they guys eyes turned into sparkles, much into contrast to Haruhi's indifferent expression "This brings joy into my forever grateful heart!"<p>

At this, Haruhi rolled his eyes "I wasn't worried about you, Senpai. I was actually just making sure that the girl over here isn't going to die of a heart attack." I was guessing that Haruhi was talking about me, as he nodded in my direction

"You should be really more considerate Senpai" He commented "I think you almost scared her to death"

As suddenly as he had awoken, the blonde's mood suddenly plummeted at this remark, and he ended up sulking in the corner.

"Wait a second…" Alex said, turning back to face Haruhi and me "Haruhi _Fujioka_?"

"Yeah" The brunette replied, equally turning to face Alex

"I'm so sorry!" Alex exclaimed, running back over to us "You look so different with your hair short! I thought for sure you were a dude! It's Alexandria, from class 1-A in Middle School, remember?"

Wait a second…this guy was a girl? And I thought I was confused with the cross-dressing dad, geez, Japan is full of surprises!

"This is Haruhi?" I exclaimed, looking at Alex and then back to Haruhi. Looking closely, those eyes did look a little _too_ feminine, I should have guessed it.

Like me, Haruhi had short brown hair, except mine was slightly longer, long enough for it to flick out more at the edges, and instead of my green eyes, Haruhi had honest, soft and beautiful deep brown eyes. I could easily tell that she was intelligent, and telling by the way she had backhanded the blonde so swiftly, she must be pretty frank too.

I liked her already.

"Yeah" Haruhi replied, swiftly running a hand through her short hair "I cut my hair short"

"How come?" Alex asked, her blue eyes looking at Haruhi questioningly "I thought you always looked so cute with long hair! Though, you don't look too bad with short hair either, I must say!"

"Ahem" Another member of the club coughed, one wearing glasses and was writing in a black notebook. "Haruhi, would you mind introducing the rest of the club to your two friends?"

Haruhi seemed unfazed by the interruption and simply turned back to the group of boys.

"These are the Host Club" Haruhi said, indicating to the group "Host Club; meet Alexandria, she was in my class in Middle School"

The blonde had apparently gotten out of his spiraling depression, and suddenly appeared in front of Alex and me again

"My beautiful maidens" He said, bowing "If I may introduce you to the Ouran High School Host Club; this man" The blonde indicated to the one wearing glasses "He is Kyoya; the 'Cool Type' "  
>Kyoya nodded, gave a brief, very fake smile, and continued his writing<p>

"The Twins" The blonde continued "Are Kaoru and Hikaru; the 'Little Devil Type' "  
>At that, the twins grinned, and said in perfect harmony and timing "I hope you like games, cuz' we've got the perfect one later!"<br>Something about this remark immediately made me dread ever encountering these guys again; I hate troublesome people.

"The small guy is Hunny-senpai; the 'Loli-shōta Type' " The guy said, indicating to a small blonde boy on a taller guy's shoulders.  
>If I know my languages right, which I glad to say I do; Senpai is meant to be used for somebody your senior in Japanese, right? But, this guy doesn't even look like a high-schooler!<p>

"Hi!" Hunny exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air and catching the pink-stuffed rabbit in the air "I'm Honey! And this" He indicated to the tall guy whose shoulders he sat "Is Takashi"

"Mori-senpai is the 'Strong, Silent Type' " The blonde explained.  
>Well, I could believe this guy being older than the rest! He was so tall, and sort of intimidating, if you asked me.<p>

"You already know Haruhi" The blonde continued "The 'Natural Type' and I" He gestured to himself "Am Tamaki, the 'Princely Type' a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hey" I said, half-heartedly waving to the rest of the group "I'm Kate, my friend's Alex"

Alex grinned to the group, as if the really long, over the top introduction didn't faze her at all "Sup!"

I elbowed Alex in the ribs sharply, and whispered in her ear "The note"

"Ow! Careful Kate!" She exclaimed, taking the piece of paper from her blazer pocket "Haruhi, your mom wanted me to give this to you"

Haruhi took the piece of paper, and began reading the note aloud

_"My darling Haruhi,  
>I just came across these two adorable girls! One of them used to go to Middle School with you, remember? She was the one who brought home your homework!<br>Anyway, they looked a bit bored, and all alone! So I sent them over to you!  
>Treat them nicely my darling! Oh, and keep that Tamaki guy away from them!<br>Lots of Love,  
>Ranka xxx"<em>

"He's evil" Alex said, shaking her head "Pure evil"

"So you are old school friends of Haruhi?" Asked Hunny innocently, jumping down from Mori's shoulders and walking over to us

"I am" Alex said "Kate never knew Haruhi though; she was at boarding school at the time, right?"

"Yeah" I replied "I only moved to Japan about a year and a half ago, and even then half of that was spent boarding overseas. I only met Alex pretty recently"

"Ah, so you're foreigners?" Kyoya asked, still writing in his notebook as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose "That explains the names then."

I suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable in front of the group, not only because they are a group of _very_ attractive guys, plus one girl, but because each one of the seemed to be judging me at that moment in time. It felt just the same as when I first went to boarding school, and I _hated_that place.

"Alex, can we go now?" I said, my nerves clearly showing in my voice as I looked at her.

Luckily, she seemed to pick up on this, and nodded.  
>The next thing she said though, I will never forgive her for.<p>

"Sorry, we have to go!" Alex said, waving to the group and pushing me towards the door "Kate's having _women's problems_"

"What?" I exclaimed as I was dragged out of the door and down the hallways of the posh school.

COOL TRANSITION

"Well" Alex said, looking once again at the huge gates of Ouran "That was eventful!"

I had calmed slightly about Alex's comment after leaving that god-awful pink room, and looked back at Alex, a small smile on my face "I somehow feel enlightened on the goings-on at Ouran Academy"

"Me too" She said, beginning to laugh "Let's get going, it's getting dark"

We began walking to our neighbourhood, and before we knew it, we parted and went our separate ways back to our homes.

The Ouran High School Host Club was strange, wacky and intimidating all at the same time, and whether I liked it or not, I had a feeling that I was going to be seeing them again very soon.

**Once again, sorry about the late update!**

**I don't think I can update until next Wednesday or Thursday, I'm on a school trip. But, you never know, I may just be able to whip up a going away present to you guys!**

**Thanks again!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, thanks for the review guys! I've got 4 special thanks!**

**crazysally - women's problems is the ultimate exuse for everything…and you know it!**

**Tbonechick2011**** - I'm not sure what's wrong with Alex either…must be coming down with the flu…**

**emogirllikes-ANIME – I'm really just experimenting with different writing styles on the site, though according to my best mate I always sound British, no matter what I do. I always have trouble with foreign names too **

**And of course my BETA reader – my_forgotten_rose – for being awesome as always!**

It had been about a week since our encounter with the creepy, perverted, yet somehow desirable Ouran High School Host Club, yet time had gone by so quickly for me and Alex, I had barely noticed.

Every day, no matter how much we tried to avoid it, we talked about the Host Club in some shape or form, about Haruhi's apparent inheritance of the habit of cross-dressing to the creepy things that the Kyoya guy must had been writing in his big black notebook of doom, somehow they always came up.

Another day had passed, making it officially a week since we had seen any sign of the club, making it Friday. School had ended about an hour ago, but neither Alex nor I wanted to go home, so we just ended up automatically walking down the long road to our favorite café in town.

"Did you see the questions on that math homework?" Alex exclaimed emphatically, lifting her arms high up in air, she almost dropped her school bags "I mean, that was at least a full page! That's not fair of teachers to do that, you know!"

I snorted "It's called maths. And how do you expect to lift your maths grades up if you don't push yourself!"

"Only the British call it maths, you limey" She retorted, "Not to mention like hell you can talk about bad grades, have you seen you geography stuff lately!"

I blushed with embarrassment, "Who needs to know the names of all the American States anyway?"

Alex stopped walking and raised an eyebrow, putting one hand of her hip, and pointing to herself with the other. It was one of her 'silent remarks', and I hated them.

"Fine! Fine you win!" I gave up, raising my arms in the air with frustration "Still, how do you expect to go to a better school with maths grades like that?"

"Lobelia will accept me somehow" she replied, looking up at the sky, a glimmer of sad hope in her eyes.

You see, I know this sounds incredibly cheesy, but Alex secretly doesn't really want all that much to do with football- sorry, soccer in the future. She's competitive and all that, but what she really wants to do is be a dancer.  
>I've seen her stuff, she's pretty damn good if you ask me, but to get into a school like Lobelia, she has at least got to get her grades up.<p>

Lobelia is the only school I know around this area that is famed for its theatrical performances, especially the song and dance routines. So you see, it's vital that she gets in if she wants a future in performing arts. I'm trying my best to tutor her secretly, without any other classmates knowing, but I fear she won't progress with my help.  
>I mean, I got an 'F' in the last geography test, and I have a feeling I would have gotten lower if there was a lower grade to get, my score was 29%.<p>

My mind drifted back to that stupid Host Club again, but this time it was actually topical. Haruhi was a scholarship student, right? That's what Alex had told me anyway, so that would mean that she knew how the whole system worked, right?

"Hey Alex" I asked, stopping in my tracks as I tried to process this thought.

"Yeah?" She said, walking slightly beyond me and turning round.

"You really want to be accepted, don't you?" I asked, looking at her directly in the eyes with determination, analyzing her reaction.

Without a moment of hesitation, in just as a determined voice, she replied "Yeah, I do. I would go to hell and back for it".

I smiled "Good, then you won't mid working for it!"

Alex snapped out of her determined phase, and immediately went back to her normal ways "W-wait! I didn't say I would work for it! I just said I would go to hell and back! There's a difference!"

"For you" I replied "Working is hell!"  
>"Your point Kate?" She said, shifting feet irritably.<p>

"Why don't we ask that chick Haruhi to tutor you? She's smart, right?" I suggested, beginning to walk again.

"I guess…" She said, also beginning to walk alongside me "But…Ranka…".

"What are you waiting for?" I said, suddenly jumping in front of her and pushing her back down the path to Haruhi's house "Let's get our arses moving!"

COOL TRANSITION

"S-sorry for troubling you" Alex stuttered, bowing deeply as she sat at Ranka and Haruhi's feet, in a position that I never thought I would see Alex in.

She looked like she was begging for forgiveness.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, right Haruhi?" Said Ranka, waving his hand in front of his face, as many Japanese people tend to do when they say something is nothing "I mean, I'm completely fine with my darling Haruhi spending some more time with girls for once, she needs to bring out her more adorable side!" She exclaimed.

In a way, the over the top-ness of Ranka sort of reminded me of that blonde dude Tamaki, which slightly disturbed me. Maybe asking for Alex's tutoring really was not the greatest of my ideas.

"Are you ok with it Haruhi?" Alex asked, looking up at the cute brunette with my own puppy dog eyes, you know, those ones your best friend always has up their sleeve whenever they want you to do something? She's good at them.

I swear Haruhi wasn't even fazed by them, but still continued to make the decision on her own "I guess tutoring somebody would be fun for a while…but I'm not really sure why you would want me to-"

"Thank you so much!" Alex and I both exclaimed "You won't regret this!"  
>We both leapt on the floor and began bowing at Haruhi's feet, much to her dismay as she began yelling at us to stop it.<p>

In the back of my mind, I had the feeling that she already had begun to regret her decision. But, she was stuck with us.

**I hope you liked it and I brightened your day!**

**I'm going on a school trip for a while, so I won't be able to update till AT LEAST Wednesdays, so I need motivation!**

***sniff* I have to wake up at 3:30 in the morning tomorrow! PITY ME!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Yes! I'm alive! **

**(Though I did go into depression when I saw only one person took the time to send me a nice farewell…was the chapter THAT bad?)**

**Escape_To_Ouran: Thanks for the review! Your comment really made me think…so hold that question till the end of the chapter ok!**

"Alright, so I'll go over it again" Haruhi said for about the 5th time "An acid + a metal hydroxide creates a salt, and what?"

"Um…er…" Alex trailed off, furrowing her eyebrows together with frustration "Hydrogen?"

Haruhi sighed "Nope" she shook her head and closed the Chemistry textbook "It makes water"

"Dammit!" Alex exclaimed, slamming her head onto the table "Why does chemistry have to be so %^$£*&^ difficult!"

"Language" I warned her, still weary that swearing isn't the most socially acceptable thing to do in somebody's house when you're meant to be studying "Remember the fruitcake incident? We don't want to repeat that again, now do we?"

Alex responded simply be giving me another death glare, then turning her attention back to Haruhi

"What's next?" She asked

"Well, chemistry doesn't seem to be going anywhere" She remarked, rummaging through her school bag on the floor "How about Japanese history?"

"I guess so" Alex replied, lifting her head off of the table and running a hand through her blonde hair and pointing to me accusingly "I've got that one hammered in thanks to the history nut over there"

"Only a small part!" I responded, holding my hands up in protest to Haruhi's demanding expression "I was…researching?"

I have a weird tendency to look up irrelevant information when I am procrastinating for my exams, and at some point I had managed to get so submerged I blabbed to Alex about the Edo period in Japanese history every time I saw her that month, so she ended up being an expert.

Surprisingly enough, Alex seemed to remember quite a lot of the historical facts and dates I had told her, and the last half hour of Haruhi's tutoring went by reasonably quickly. That is, until the last 10 minutes.

Everything was going fine, and Alex was beginning to brave her algebra homework with Haruhi's help, when suddenly we heard increasingly loud voices approaching the door.

Haruhi noticed the voices also, and turned to the door, her face now one of masked indifference.

About a second later, as if Haruhi had timed it all perfectly, the door burst open, and the familiar 6 irritating males entered the room.

I swore that a tick mark appeared on the side of Haruhi's face as she stood up and fully turned to the Host Club "What are you guys doing here?"

"We were bored" The twins stated, shrugging their shoulders in perfect synchronization "So we thought we'd come see you!".

Alex was pretending to ignore them, lowering her head onto the desk again as her face began to flush. I began to smile at that, it was always funny to watch her react around boys; after all, she doesn't have all that much experience.

I snickered at her pain, and whispered to her "What's the problem?"

"Boys…why?" She simply replied with a groan

"You never act like this on the football pitch" I commented.

She raised her head to give me a glare "It's called soccer, and they aren't boys, they're team-mates"

I rolled my eyes with a sigh, and directed my attention back to Haruhi's conversation  
>It looked like she had given up arguing with them, and instead simply indicated for them to join us at the table as she went off to the kitchen.<p>

I laughed a bit at the way each of them scrunched up as they sat down, like there wasn't enough room for them, despite the face Alex and I were sitting cross-legged quite comfortably with school bags streamed across the room still with plenty of space around us.

"So what are you two doing over at Haruhi's house?" The small blonde named Hunny asked, tilting his head innocently as he looked at the crowded table covered in school books and pencil cases

"Studying" I replied, picking up my chemistry textbook "Haruhi's tutoring us"

"Well, more me than Kate" Alex added, finally gaining the courage to lift her head from the table to make eye contact with the group "I've got at raise my grades by the end of the semester, otherwise…" she shuddered

Tamaki seemed completely entranced by Alex's cliff-hanger, and leaned forward to Alex, his eyes wide with anticipation "Otherwise…what?"

I noticed another violent blush creep its way across Alex's face, so I decided to put her out of her misery and lie for her "Otherwise her parents will kill her…with a knife"

Somehow, the idiotic blonde fell for the blatant lie, and recoiled in fear dramatically  
>"Oh! That's so tragic! Being pressured by one's family like that!"<p>

The rest of the club didn't seem to buy the tale, but it seemed like there was no stopping the blonde when he was on a roll

"We, the Ouran Host Club will do everything we can to protect you from your cruel family!" Tamaki continued, somehow seeming even more melodramatic with every sentence "That, we will guarantee!"

I suddenly deeply regretted my decision to so suddenly explain in Alex's place, as I felt the glare of doom burning a hole into the back of my head, probably coming from Alex.

Haruhi entered the room again carrying a tray, balancing on it cups of tea which I guessed she must had made when we were having this conversation, and sat down with a sigh.

"Sorry again about this you guys" She said to me and Alex, handing everybody a cup "The club tend to do this a lot"

"I guessed" I replied, taking a sip of the warm tea.

As I did so, I saw the time on my watch in the corner in my eye.

"$*^£!" I exclaimed, slamming the tea down as I looked at my watch properly "Is it that time already?"

"What is it Kate-chan?" The blonde Hunny asked as I grabbed all my books and shoved them into my bag

"Tom's band meeting!" I exclaimed in reply, leaping up from the table and quickly bowing to Haruhi as I ran to the door "I am so sorry for this, but I have to go!" I apologized as I ran out of the door and leapt down the stairs.

Alex followed me to the top of the stairs, and waved as I ran down the street

"Good luck!" She exclaimed "Make sure they don't blow something up this time!" 

COOL TRANSITION

You see, Tom is my older brother.  
>I don't get to see him much though, he didn't move to Japan with us you see; he was just accepted into university when we moved, so he stayed behind.<p>

He tries to visit as often as he can, but normally we only see one another about a year at a time. This time, he's brought his band with him.  
>He's in a band called 'Ultimate Heights ', which are on a tour at the moment in Japan. I've heard that they're doing quite well as a band, and their gigs have been sell-outs. But, they have one problem as a group.<p>

They tend to break stuff when they have an argument.  
>Last time they all met up at my house was back in England, when they had an argument so big 12 year old me thought it was World War III. In total the group broke 2 windows, split 5 living-room cushions, threw a TV into one of the band member's face and broke our only working computer at the time with a guitar smash.<p>

In response to this, Mum was furious. She banned the group ever meeting in our house in England ever again, and made me promise that if they ever visited Japan together, it would be of course, as the little sister's duty to make sure this time they don't destroy the living room.  
>Mum's orders.<p>

So, that is why I am running at full speed down my house's driveway, nearly tripping over my own feet while doing so.

My house itself isn't much of a marvel to look at, with a nice, but still simplistic traditional Japanese-dojo styled look to it, which is in strange contrast to the western interior we have going on inside. My favourite part of the house has to be the yard though. My mother loves gardening, so most of the time she has is spent taking care of the roses and marigolds we have down by the gate, or looking after the front lawn spread across the garden like a lush green never-ending ocean.

"Tom!" I exclaimed as I slid open one of the side doors and ran full pelt into my older brother by accident, falling onto the floor beneath him as a result.

"Whoa!" He said, crouching down and giving me a warm hug as he helped me up "Careful there Kit-Kat!"

I grinned in response and hugged him back

"I missed you so much! Why didn't you bother calling me when you got here!" I yelled at him, poking his chest accusingly

"I told you what time I would be here!" He said in response, head locking me and ruffling my hair "Don't try to blame everything on me! You were the one who didn't bother to check her watch again!"

Tom had changed so much since I last saw him; His chocolate brown hair had gotten messier and he had gotten much taller than last time we'd met. I noticed he'd his fashion sense hadn't changed a bit though; wearing a ridiculous 'Musician by day, Ninja by night' black t-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans.  
>His eyes were a different color from mine too, he had inherited a sort of sea-blue and green from my mother, whereas I just got regular light green from my father.<p>

"Does mum know you're in the house?" I asked him, remembering the scream-fest that the pair had last time he came to visit the household with the band, it was not pretty.

He paused for a moment; like a child considering whether to tell somebody that they drew on the walls. Luckily though, one of his band members explained in his place.

"She doesn't know." The band's drummer, who if I remember right was called Dominic, said. I could tell that he didn't seem all that proud about being here without my mum's permission either.  
>Dominic ran a hand through his dyed red spiky hair before continuing "She won't need to know either. We plan to leave in the morning to get to the next venue"<p>

"Sorry about that" The lead vocalist Andrew said, giving me a kind smile, but still one dripped with mischief "We'll be good…sort of "

I felt my anger begin to rise as I looked at all of them. What did they think they were doing? Mum is going to kill them, and then she will yell at me too for keeping their doomsday of a visit a secret!

I began to open my mouth for a screaming match with my brother, when suddenly I felt half a dozen pairs of eyes on me.  
>I had felt the feeling many times in Boarding School, so I could detect it with ease or ignore it at will, which was kind of useful in a way.<p>

However this time I chose not to ignore it, I was too tired and irritated to ignore it, not to mention I wanted nothing more than to divert my attention away from the thought of what mum was going to do with the members of 'Ultimate Heights', family or not.

I sharply turned around, and briefly scanned every bush and wall I could see for those pairs of eyes.  
>It didn't take me long; in the bush literally 10 meters away from where I was standing, I saw the telltale tufts of hair from two redheads, three blondes, one brunette and two with dark hair.<br>There was no denying it; it was Alex and the Host Club.

Alex instinctively noticed my anger begin to seep through every pour in my body; I was using every ounce of my strength to keep myself from strangling every one of them then and there, so she gave up the hide-and-seek game and stood up from behind the bush.

"Um…Hey Kate!" She began, awkwardly scratching the back of her head "What a coincidence! How's it going?"

I had enough at that point. There was no way that I could keep the floodgates of my temper closed for long, so I thought I may as well let it seep out and direct it towards Alex, after all, it was her fault in the first place for spying on me, she had it coming.

"WHAT THE %$*& DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING ALEX?"

**My trip was fun! Though everybody got into fights and we ended up stealing water from the café because the youth hostel wouldn't let us have any…**

**Alright, I've been thinking at the moment what YOU guys think who should go with who, so if you are reviewing, please can you tell me who personally you think who Kate and Alex are going with…it would really help giving me a help as to what developments should come next.**

**Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**  
>Hey guys! <strong>

**Sorry about the late update, I was really piled on with work, and then I couldn't figure out how to write is out, and then…well; you get the idea!**

**Alright, here we go!**

I really, really regret my decision to let my anger out on the club; because as soon as I had, all hell broke loose.

"What does it look like?" The twins asked sarcastically, stepping out of the bushes where they were hiding and leaning uncomfortably close to my face, completely disregarding my sense of personal space and only irritating me further.

"We got bored at Haruhi's house" One of the twins said, though I couldn't tell which one. His voice was only slightly, but still noticeably a higher pitch than his brothers.

"So we forced your friend Alex to take us up to where you live!" The other twin finished; his voice slightly lower than his counterpart.

"Alright…I believe you" I said sceptically, taking a step away from the troublesome duo "But, why my house?"

"Because we thought it would be fun!" The twin replied in perfect harmony, their combined voices coated in enthusiasm as they threw their arms high above their heads.

You know, I had never noticed how different Karou and Hikaru's voices were when they spoke out of sync and on their own. When they spoke together, their 'one' voice seemed to have a sort of harmony to it.

I guess there are ways of telling the two apart.  
>Feb 26th, 1:28pm<p>

My brother finally actually began to pay attention to his surroundings and looked questionably at the group of stalkers in our backyard.

He put his hands on my shoulders from behind, and asked me "Hey Kit-Kat…who are these men stalking you? Have they been bothering you often?"

Although those questions were innocent enough, I could sense Tom giving the group death glares from behind me, the type of glare overly-protective fathers give boys that try to hit on their daughters.

Alex decided to come to the poor Host Club's rescue as their leader Tamaki seemed to be…frozen, with a terrified look on his face.

"They're mates of mine and Kate's, the brunette there" She pointed to the bored looking Haruhi next to her "Is my tutor Haruhi, no need to worry Tom, if they put a hand on your sister; I'll beat them to a pulp!" She exclaimed.

Somehow, this short explanation was more than enough to sway my easy-going brother, as his mood completely changed and he gave the group a warm, bright and welcoming smile.

"That's great!" He exclaimed, indicating for the group to get out of the yard and into the living room "Please come in!".

COOL TRANSITION 

'How did I get into this?' I thought, waiting impatiently for the kettle beside me to actually do something for once and make some hot water for tea.

The Host Club, plus Alex and the members of 'Ultimate Heights' were sitting round the overly large dining table together and getting on fairly well I guessed, judging by the laughs and loud conversations everyone was having together.

I sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table and taking a look at some of my homework's strewn across the surface of it. It looked like the kettle was slowly giving up the battle of boiling water and I knew I was going to be here a while until either it died or suddenly began working again, thankfully it somehow always came through.

The radio was on beside me, and I leaned my head onto the table whilst listening to whatever pop song they were playing, they all seemed like the same song to me anyway.

The song soon ended, and that always jolly DJ decided to grace us with his way too cheerful voice before the commercials rolled.

'And the lucky 5 winners with either win a trip to New York, 25 thousand yen or a trip to a popular theme park of their choice! All you have to do is pick up the phone if you are called so be ready! We'll be seeing you right after these messages!' Then it went to another sponsored commercial.

"I wonder if Alex misses New York…" I said to myself, getting the mugs out of the cupboards and dropping in the tea bags into them.

The kettle had finally decided to boil the water today and surprisingly at a regular speed too.  
>I picked up the kettle and poured the boiling water into each of the mugs, leaving about ½ of the cup empty.<p>

"Do you guys want milk?" I yelled into the next room

"Yes please!" The group yelled back, with exception to Tom, who replied "Hell no!"

"Got it!" I replied, getting the carton of milk out of the fridge.

Just then, the landline phone rang.

I put down the milk and picked up the phone.

"Heeellllooooo there!" An overly joyful voice ran from down the phone

"Hello?" I replied

"Congratulation Miss!" The voice said "We here from Radio Fortnight have chosen you to win a prize!"

"You're pulling my leg, right?" I said in an indifferent tone of voice, I guess I sounded like Haruhi. I generally never trusted this 'You have won $100!' stuff, and I wasn't going to start now.

Suddenly, I felt that spine shuddering sensation of people watching me again, and I turned to the doorway to see the Host Club, Kate and all of 'Ultimate Heights' piling on top of one another and poking their heads out of the door.

One guy from the Host Club didn't join them though; the one with glasses remained seated in the room, reading from his Black Notebook.

I really should name that book…

I tilted my head in interest, looking at the line of heads staring at me.

Tamaki waved his arms about silently, as if saying 'Keep talking on the phone!'

"Alright" I said, leaning onto the table "So let's say that I believe you…"

The doorway gang cheered quietly, but still loudly enough for me to give them a death glare.

"What's the catch?" I continued

"No catch!" He replied, deepening my suspicions "Just say your name and how happy you are to win this!"

"Win what?" I asked cynically

"You Miss have won a trip to your local theme park for your family!" He said enthusiastically.

Oh I see, this man is that jolly DJ from the pop station…

"Fine" I sighed, defeated.

"Ok, you're on air…now!" He said, and I heard a bleep from the background of the music station "So miss what's your name?"

I put on my jolliest voice, after the guy probably was a bit stressed and needed an easy customer "Hello! My name is Kate Farnest, and I have just won a trip to my local theme park! Thank you so much Radio Fortnight!"

I put down the phone, and turned to the group at the door.

"What?" I asked innocently.

"Who are you taking!" Alex demanded, squeezing out of the dog pile and running up to me.

"Urm…I don't know" I replied "I was planning on giving the tickets to Tom and his mates-".

"No can do Kit-Kat" Tom interrupted, shaking his head "We're only with you for tonight, and then the rest of our time in Japan will be working".

"Kate-chan?" Hunny asked, walking up to me and giving me an expression that can only be described as 'The puppy-dog eyes of doom'.

"Yes Hunny?" I asked, my voice rising up at the end in pure stress to keep in contact with those adorable brown eyes.

"Can…we come with you?" He asked innocently, giving an explosion of cute with almost tearing up eyes.  
>The kid obviously had lots of practice in manipulating people like this, and it worked a charm.<p>

"F-fine, I guess…" I said, deliberately avoiding the adorable blonde's gaze by looking up at the ceiling, it was very interesting at the moment.

"Great!" He exclaimed, jumping up into the air and catching his rabbit toy "Did you hear that Takashi? We're going to a commoner theme park with Kate and Alex!".

"Hm" Mori replied, giving a brief nod to Hunny.

"Commoner theme park?" Alex and I both said in unison.

"They do this…a lot" Haruhi explained frankly.

"Then it's settled" Kyoya said, closing his black notebook with a profound 'thud'.

"Excellent!" Tamaki exclaimed, pointing to the sky and earning odd looked from Andrew who was next to him. Poor sod.

"We'll leave tomorrow!" He continued "And we can spend time together with commoners like my daughter Haruhi!".

"Once again, I'm not a commoner" I said "My parents make quite a living actually-".

"But they have to work for a living" Alex cut me off "So to them; you're a commoner"

"See you tomorrow, how about 10 o'clock? Don't be late!" The twins Karou and Hikaru said in perfect unison, skipping out of the door and being followed by the rest of the Host Club.

"Is it me, or do they always leave suddenly, and strangely?" Alex asked, watching the group of boys and Haruhi leave the drive and make their way to a conveniently placed limo.

The members of 'Ultimate Heights' looked at Alex and me, an expression of true concern of their faces.

"Anyway, I've got to go!" Alex said, walking out of the door "See you tomorrow Kate!"

"See ya!" I said waving her goodbye and turning to the remaining boys.

"Right" I said, putting my hand on my hips "About telling mum about this…"

**My BETA reader is…amazing.**

**Seriously, she is the greatest creature to grace this earth (apart from my best mate, of course) and has not only helped my plan what to do this chapter, but edited and spell-checked it in no time at all!**

**So, special thanks to ****my-forgotten-rose**** for being amazing in every way!**

**Mormonsrock: Thanks for being the 1st reviewer! I am so glad I got Tamaki into character! (The bad thing is, apparently I act just like him too…) I would love somebody to be paired with Kasanoda or Nekozawa too, but I don't really know too much about them so I don't trust myself to make them…non OOC.**

**Midnighter67****: Kate has a bad temper…when she needs it. It's her stress levels you see, comes from all the crumpets she has…(yeah, here I am, telling you about my generically British fictional character's crumpet addition…)**

**Escape to Ouran: I love how you are already passionately fangirl-ing over the destiny of Alex to be with Mori, and possibly Kate with Kyoya. I love that you called me Senpai! ~you actually made me squeal at the screen! Then I got weird looks from my brother…..**

**Also, if you want to look in the reviews, my best mate 'A persons best friend' has recreated the tale of when I found a shrew in the kitchen…..Adorable!**

**Whoop! I have managed to make an entire tube of people give queer looks to my mate when she read this on the tube!**

**See you next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Whoop! I'm back baby!**

**My trip was AMAZING!**

…**it's nice to stand next to the guy you've crushed on for a year.**

**You can kind of tell that since I've been suffering for a year that I'm not to good with romance…sorry about that.**

**Even so! I've got an AMAZING BETA reader to help me with that and all you reviewers! Thanks for the support so far!**

I glanced at my watch again for the 15th time; unsurprisingly the time had not changed since half a second ago.

"10:15…no wait…10:16" I remarked "And those posh kids told me not to be late? Where the hell are they!"

Well, I guess I have no room to talk either. Firstly, I may not be as posh as people like Tamaki; but I am pretty posh considering my upbringing, education and house. Secondly, I only arrived at the theme park 5 minutes ago, after missing the bus that stops at the end of my street and having to run all the way here; In the rain.

Both fortunately and unfortunately for me it looked like finally the rain was letting up a bit, meaning that I wouldn't have to get more soaked than I already was, but it also meant that if I had waited a bit for the bus, I wouldn't have gotten wet at all.

I wouldn't have been in such a rush if I knew they were going to be this late.

I sighed, producing a large puff a white steam in front of me. At least I had been wise enough to bring a coat.

Well, I say wise enough, but in truth I only brought my denim jacket because mum refused to let me out of the house in only my dark blue T-shirt and jeans. For once, my brother agreed with her and brought the old thing from my room for me while I was having breakfast.

Mum took Tom and his band's presence in the house surprisingly well last night. It looked like the long hours at work were killing her again, so she must had decided there was no point arguing as long as they only stayed the night and cleaned up after they left.

They didn't clean-up of course, but Tom started to vacuum the carpet when the rest of 'Ultimate Heights' left for a meeting with the manager, so it looked like he was on cleanup duty by mum's orders.

Anyway, in short I was cold, wet and tired from running five blocks flat out to get to this stupid theme park, that I could of skipped out on.

I had expected Alex to be late, wherever we went, no matter it be the cinema in town or an airport to pick up an old friend of her family, she has never been in the entire time I have known her punctual.

It's the Host Club that surprised me.

Though I hadn't known Haruhi for very long, already I could tell that she had a no-nonsense attitude about life, and especially about the Host Club. Even if she didn't want to come to the park today, she wouldn't have been late on purpose.

Maybe the boys kept her behind?

Who knows?

Either way, I didn't want to stand at the entrance for any longer being glared at by groups of mothers with their kids. Sighing, I moved from my position leaning against the gate and walked over to the bus stop, ready to leave.

They had probably ditched me, and I didn't feel like being left like a lemon standing there anyway. As soon as Alex arrived, I would complain about her being late and then go home to her warm, nice bed.

I was about to sit on the slightly damp plastic tube of a seat when a long, shiny, expensive black limo stopped in front of me.

I straightened up and stared at the extremely out of place vehicle before me. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw the entire Host Club and Alex step out of the car.

Well, the Host Club more dragged Alex out of the limo rather than her walking out.

"Sorry we were late Kate-chan!" Hunny exclaimed, running up to me from inside the limo "Alex was asleep when we came to pick her up!"

Somehow, I wasn't surprised a bit at that.

"It's ok" I said, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly, though silently giving the death glare to Alex from over Hunny's shoulder "I wasn't waiting that long"

"You look like you've been in the rain" Kyoya remarked. I couldn't tell if he said it mockingly or out of genuine interest, as he was writing in that black notebook of his.

'I think I'll nickname that notebook KIRA…it reminds me of something but I can't put my finger on it…'

"Yeah" I replied "I missed my bus, so I had to run here to get on time" I explained.

"Interesting" He commented, still scribbling something in KIRA.

"It's great to see you my niece!" Tamaki exclaimed, aiming for what seemed like a hug but luckily I managed to step aside in time. Making Tamaki stumble and giving me a sad look.

"Niece?" I asked, instinctively turning to Alex for an explanation, I could tell she wasn't thrilled either.

"He called me that in the car also" She said, glaring at the blonde with something that reminded me of how Tom looks when I wake him up in the morning "The guy probably has a weird, perverted family complex".

Haruhi gave a sigh and made her way from the back of the group to the main entrance, followed by a pair of way too happy twins, Mori, Hunny, Kyoya and Tamaki.  
>She turned towards Alex and me and gave us a warm, uplifting smile that seemed to make me completely forget about what I had been talking about, no wonder the Host Club seemed to thrive around her.<p>

"I haven't been to a theme park for a long time" she explained, continuing to walk towards the entrance "Let's not waste any time!".

Alex and I both nodded in synchronization, before joining the club with my voucher.

COOL TRANSITION

We entered the park without any problems, though the lady at the counter looked a little confused with the 'family go free!' ticket being used by a group of rich teenagers; apart from a raised eyebrow, she gave no trouble. After all, who was to tell them that they weren't my family, they could have been a distant cousin of mine.

Looking at the park from the inside was completely different from watching at the gate. The roller-coaster attractions were huge, with long, snake-like cues streaming from their entrance and a huge billboard was above them, saying how long the cue would take for you to get on. The shortest time was half an hour.

Food stands and prize kiosks popped up everywhere, with a few couples playing the games to win giant teddy bears for each other or small kids buying long hot-dogs and tall ice-creams with grins plastered across their faces. The atmosphere was contagious, I was already enjoying myself.

There was a large Ferris wheel slowly turning on the other side of the theme park, towering over everything else. As the sun began to peek its way through the layer of clouds, a large shadow of the wheel was appointed across the park, giving it a sort of glorious effect. We all stood in awe

I was so going on that!

"It looks like Haruhi, Tamaki and Hikaru with Karou have already left" Kyoya remarked from beside me, without looking up and still writing in KIRA.

How the heck can he tell without looking up?

He finally closed KIRA and put it into his shoulder bag, straightened his green shirt and turned to Alex and me.

He gave us this kind of creepy, kind person smile and asked us "Is there anywhere you ladies would like to go?"

Something told me he was only asking because he wanted something, but Alex fell right into the seemingly harmless trap, she obviously didn't seem to notice said trap.

"Hell yes!" She exclaimed "I wanna' go on the vertical drop roller-coaster!" she pointed to the large drop close by.

My eyes widened slightly and my stomach already began to feel queasy "V-vertical…drop?"

"Oh yeah…" Alex said, giving me a pitying look "You don't like that kind of stuff do you?"

"Do you not like scary stuff Kate-chan?" Hunny asked sweetly, also giving me a worried look "You already look slightly pale actually"

"Do you have a fever?" Mori asked, placing a hand on my forehead, in an act of concern.

'Wow. That was the first time he's said a full sentence…' I mused.

"You don't seem feverish…" Mori trailed off, he then turned to Alex "Does this normally happen?"

"Yep. Every flippin' time" She replied "I tried to take her to a theme park in Tokyo once; she freaked and threw up in a trashc-"

I smacked my hand over her mouth to stop her blabbering. Geez, that day was embarrassing enough to not having to recall it.

Normally, roller-coasters don't bother me; Just the ones which drop really fast and really suddenly. This, unfortunately for me, seems to be the trend for all of the 'fun' roller-coaster rides so I end up hurling my lunch up every time I go to a place like Thorpe Park or Six Flags.

"In that case" Kyoya had somehow managed to get KIRA out, write in it and close it before I had even realized he had it out "How about Alex, Hunny and Mori go to that ride, while I wait with Kate for her stomach to calm down" he suggested.

I felt my face go bright red at the suggestion, more embarrassed about turning pale at the thought of a roller coaster than sitting with a guy on my own "No way! You've got to go on the roller coaster too! There's no way you can just sit out-"

"Truth be told; I'm not a fan of the vertical drop also" He interrupted, clearly this was not up for debate "It would be a pleasure to wait with you Miss Farnest"

Wait…did I even mention my surname before? This guy was scary.

I sighed, defeated again "Fine, but please don't address me as 'Miss Farnest'. My name is Kate...Katherine if you want to be formal"

"Right then, Kyoya and Kate-chan are going to stay behind!" Hunny said way too enthusiastically "We'll be going then!"

"Ah" Mori simply replied, following Hunny's adorable skip towards the tall, vertical dropping roller coaster.

"I guess I'm following them then" Alex remarked, walking behind the two boys slowly. The trio headed off to get in line, for the death defying drop.

I didn't even notice how red in the face Alex had been when she turned and walked with the boys. I was preoccupied with my own situation.

**Hey guys! Do you want me to swap POV's for half of the next chapter to Alex on the roller coaster, or just keep to Kate's? Please tell in your review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright! Here we go!**

**Sorry about the late update again, but…THIS CHAPTER WAS SO FUN TO WRITE!**

I sat down on a bench next to me with a thud, with Kyoya quickly following suit. We were both on opposite ends of the bench, and I tried my best to avoid eye contact with him.

'_What do I say?'_ I thought desperately, looking down intensely at the stitches on my jeans _'How the heck do I talk to a guy who does nothing but write in a creepy notebook the whole time?'_

"How did you know my surname?" I asked, trying my best to start a conversation.

For a second I looked up at him; and much to my dismay he was giving me one of those creepy 'trying to be nice' smiles, I didn't look down again as I was being determined to hold his gaze, trying to distract him from going back to KIRA.

"You said it on the radio when Alex and the rest of the Host Club came round to your house, remember?" He said, flashing that creepy smile at me again.

Something about this guy really unnerved me. It was like being watched and judged in boarding school, but if you amplified it by 6…maybe 7 when he gives that smile.

"How the heck did you remember that?" I enquired, feeling more and more uncomfortable on the bench with Kyoya as each word came out of my mouth

"I was simply being polite" He replied, with something of a slight coldness dripping from his tone of voice, despite his expression being perfectly innocent and the rest of his manner seemingly coated in sugar "Farnest is not a common surname in Japan, so it sticks out quite enough to make a person remember"

He was blatantly lying through his teeth, if I didn't know any better I would think that he wrote down my surname in KIRA and has been researching my personal history since the first day we met.

"So Alex Greenwood is aspiring to be a dancer in Lobelia?" Kyoya asked frankly, which made me literally jump off the bench and having my butt planted to the floor with a squeak.

"H-how the ^%$* did you-!" I exclaimed, only to be interrupted by Kyoya again, cutting off my outburst

"So I _am_ correct" He commented, closing KIRA with a profound 'thud'

How the heck does he do that? When did he even take KIRA out of his bag?

"Interesting" He continued "The entire St Andrew's soccer team is convinced that she is planning on continuing her soccer skills; it is most unusual for her to choose such a career path. Perhaps that is why she intends to keep it secret until she gets accepted…if she get's accepted that is…"

"It's_ football_, not soccer!" I had to add, before the information he had given sunk in properly "Y-you talked to the _entire_ football team?"

I was stunned when I was squatting on the ground. This guy must have some serious connections to be able to talk to _everyone_ who knew Alex in the football team; most of them don't even talk to me when I'm there, and I've been going to every practice I could for an entire year!

I stood up and brushed off the dirt from my jeans, before darting my gaze back and forth around me, as if everybody there was going to listen in on two teenager's conversation together.

"Look" I said "Can we not talk about stuff like this here?" I indicated to the people walking past us towards the rides or kiosks

"I highly agree Miss Farnest" Kyoya said, also standing up. I tried to hide the frustration of being addressed formally by brushing off more invisible dirt from my jeans "Now, where do you suggest we go?"

Urgent to get out of the crowd, I looked up and picked the first attraction that I saw.

"Alright, how about the Ferris wheel?" I asked, slightly excited about going up on the star attraction of the park, but still frustrated I had to go up with him, why did it have to be him?

He nodded in reply, and gave that spine shuddering creepy smile. I didn't say anything else, but just started walking towards the queue.

About 20 minutes later of awkward silence, Kyoya and I got onto the cart and sat at opposite ends, facing one another as the wheel began to turn, lifting us above the ground.

For the first few minutes, we said nothing. I stared out of the window at the ground below us, as each second passed the people below became smaller and smaller, until finally they were nothing but tiny specks.

I broke the silence by asking him in a harsh tone "Ok, so you know about Alex. What do you plan to do that information?", I loved Alex, she was my best friend. If he was planning to use anything against her, it would be war.

He didn't answer my question, instead he changed the subject.

"So you went to boarding school before you moved to Japan?" He asked innocently, and somehow had managed to get KIRA out in a blink of an eye and have it open in front of him.

He wasn't writing anything though, but he had his pen poised just above the paper, waiting.

_Aha! So he wanted information! Well, it takes 'two to tango' my friend!__  
><em>  
>"Yep. It's not much of a secret; everybody in school knows I went to a boarding school in England before my parents got a job in Japan" I replied, trying my best to imitate Kyoya's annoying 'innocent as pie' tone of voice, even adding a little shrug after I gave that information up.<p>

"Why move schools then?" Kyoya enquired. I noticed that he hadn't written anything down, so that meant that he hadn't gotten the information that he wanted just yet "Why not just stay at the boarding school and go to Japan on the holidays? You must have missed your friends when you left, am I correct?"

I stiffened dramatically as every hair of my body stood up on end. Kyoya must have noticed too as he gave me a quizzical look, but said nothing more. I didn't dare answer his question until I had calmed down a bit, and when I finally relaxed slightly I sighed and looked down at my jeans in defeat.

"Let's just say I didn't have the greatest of experiences there" I replied, trying my very best to sound calm and assertive.

That wasn't even the half of it. That boarding school was hell. The girls I shared a room with were all snobbish and refused to talk to me, mainly because my parents had no connections to their own parent's businesses. In the 2 years I had spent there I had only made 3 friends; two guys called Todd and Jack and a girl called Linda; neither of which I shared more than 2 classes with. Every second I had in that school where I was away from those 3 was torture, and when my parents gave me the opportunity to leave I took it in a heartbeat.

Surprisingly, he didn't pry any more into the situation. Instead he changed the subject.

"Miss Alex Greenwood is aspiring to become a dancer?" He asked, closing his notebook much to my surprise and looking out of the window.

_'Thank God!'_ I mentally screamed.

"Yeah. She's been working really hard to get into Lobelia, since they're the best school that offers decent performing arts qualifications." I chuckled slightly "I remember the first time that I saw her dancing; she's improved a lot technically since I first met her, that's for sure!"

"Indeed. The Host Club often encounters the infamous 'Zuka Club' of Lobelia High School; they certainly have a passion for dramatics." He replied.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but something told me that it wasn't meant to be taken with all that much seriousness, so I smirked at him slightly.

Does this guy have a sense of humor?

Come to think of it, Kyoya doesn't seem like the kind of person that simply gains information without there being a purpose. So why would he take mercy on my clear distress on my memories of high school and change the subject so quickly?

_Maybe there was more to him than I first thought?_

"Her family is quite famous for their advertising campaigns, especially in such sports such as soccer and cycling. If I remember correctly, Alex's family is currently working on an advertising campaign for the Ootori Hospital's new 'Local vacation therapy' facilities" He commented, idly looking out at the stunning view below us.

His comment hit me like an anvil. So that was his aim? Honestly, just when I had started to think that this guy had some sort of human kindness and innocent curiosity within him, he just comes out with his true motives! What a little &*^%!

…Or did he say that as a decoy?

The next second I realized I had spent the entire ride trying to figure this guy out and had basically missed out the glorious view. The wheel had come full circle and we were back on the ground before I had even realized it.

"Did you enjoy the Ferris wheel Miss Farnest?" Kyoya asked as we got out of the cart and began walking back to the bench where Mori, Hunny and Alex were sitting.

"Erm…" I said, scratching the back of my head innocently. I was about to tell him that I had been a little bit too preoccupied when he cut me off as I began to speak

"I got some great pictures of the view" He said, smiling that creepy smile again "I am sure that the others would like to see them as well. Should I send some printed copies to your address for you and Miss Greenwood to see?"

'This guy…how?' I thought. I didn't even see him take pictures, but somehow he had when I was spaced out and was offering for me to see them printed, like he _knew_ that I hadn't seen the view from the top of the Ferris wheel!

"S-sure!" I said, both creped out and slightly grateful that he took the effort to take pictures "You know my address right?" I asked him

"Of course" He remarked as we approached Alex, Mori and Hunny "I was the one to tell the driver your address the time we came over to visit"

Wait…didn't Alex do that?

As if he had read my very thoughts, he continued "Miss Greenwood was being assaulted and interrogated by the twins at the time, so she was in no state to give out your address correctly"

This guy is so…._creepy_!

My terrified thoughts were then pulled away from Kyoya as Hunny ran up to Kyoya and me, and jumped up slightly in the air

"Kate-chan!" He exclaimed "The ride was so fun!"

I laughed slightly as I looked at Alex. She looked slightly green and Mori was holding her shoulders to keep her from falling flat on her face, If I was not so scared I would of thought it was cute… almost.

"What's wrong with Alex?" I asked Mori as I walked up to the two and kindly took Alex out of his care, her face was pale, and she felt a little clammy to the touch.

"Nausea and stomach pains" He replied "She's most likely suffering from severe motion sickness"  
>day without a blink of an eye. And this was the first time I had ever seen her look so green around the edges.<p>

Just exactly how bad was this vertical drop?

"Thanks for taking care of her Mori" I said, slinging her arm over my shoulder and helping her walk "I think I'll be taking her home now…"

"Are you sure Kate-chan?" Hunny asked, giving me that adorable 'big eyes' look "Would you like to take a limo with us?"

"No, no that won't be necessary" I replied, beginning to walk away slowly "I've had a great day, but I think it will be best for me to deal with her when she wakes up"

"Why?" Mori and Hunny asked in unison, something that reminded me of the twins more than anything.

"Her blood type is AB" Kyoya replied, which somehow managed to answer the two's question as they gave An understanding "Oh" as a response, what did blood type had to do with this?

"I'll be seeing you then!" I yelled as I reached the exit of the theme park

"See you soon Alex-chan and Kate-chan!" Hunny exclaimed, waving his arm enthusiastically before turning back to the other two Hosts and walking back to the park.

Somehow I think that the relationship between Kyoya and me had shifted slightly after our conversation on the Ferris wheel, and at least from then I now knew what his creepy smile meant.

_'I've got some information you don't have'_

Just once, just once I would like to slap that smile off of his smug face.

**Yes! Got it done!**

**I had problems getting this chapter written in pure fear of Kyoya being OOC or Kate being a Mary-Sue, so I had a few re-writes. But I just sat down today and started writing, and it all seemed to come together nicely! Whoop!**

**I've got exams coming up (important ones!) so you probably won't see another chapter up for another 1 or 2 weeks. Sorry guys!**

**Ok! We've hit 30 reviews! I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW! So many exclamation marks!**

**Escape to Ouran : Thank you so much! Your comment made me feel so comforted, knowing that people won't kill me for getting daily updates! I've been doing hours of revision for my tests (I'm using this as English practice…maybe?) so hopefully I'll get a decent mark!**

**justiceintheworldofhp-yearight**** : Thank you for reviewing! I'm so happy you like the story and I try to update as soon as possible…sometimes it's a little hard to get the creative juices flowing though, and that's when your reviews help me!**

**Koharu Veddette : Thank you so much for putting my story in your community! I was so happy and for the first time I felt like an accomplished fanfic writer! Also, thanks for the chapter-mix-up-heads-up! I hope it was only you that noticed! I was so embarrassed!**

**TeddyTan : Thank you so much for reviewing! I was so happy that you liked the story so much to read it in one go that I did a happy dance in my room…and then my dad walked in…**

**Emers and the Jawnske**** : My guess is that your review meant that you wanted me to switch POVs to Alex right? Well, I have a little plan that if this story goes well enough and I like it enough and if people want it I'll do a sequel in Alex's point of view, following the same story line but with her thoughts and opinions…maybe?**

**InterceptionSunset**** : Kyoya's notebook is SO scary! I'm glad you love the story!**

**I have to say now that this story has been the most rewarding for me to write, as it improves my writing skills, I've got a BRILLIANT BETA (Thanks again my forgotten rose!) and I get so many nice reviews that make me happy and make me write more! **

…**it's a nice and vicious circle or writing!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Yes! I'm alive! **

**Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for…**

"Oh Alexxxx?" I sang in a taunting tune "Are you awwwaaakkke?"

I prodded my best friend in her forehead as she groaned softly, before raising an arm and whacking the back of my head violently.

"Ouch!" I protested, rubbing the back of my head before sending Alex a wide grin "Glad to see you're back to yourself."

Alex groaned again, before fully opening her eyes and giving me a tired, venomous glare "How long was I out of it?"

"About 3 hours" I replied "Still, how was the ride? You looked really sick before you passed out in Mori's arms…" A genuine question, I didn't know how she'd react after.

At that moment, Alex's face turned bright red, then almost immediately afterwards it changed to sickly green as she pressed the palm of her hand against her mouth in an attempt to keep the contents of her stomach from spewing out. She clenched her stomach, and ran towards the bathroom.

"I guess the motion sickness hasn't worn off yet?" I asked myself, looking at the now closed white bathroom door to the left of Alex's bedroom down the hall. I smirked slightly at remembering her facial expression when I mentioned Mori…well, before she turned green anyway.

Did something happen between them? If it did, I was going to squeeze the life out of Alex until she told me! There is no way she's going to seduce a poor guy without my knowledge (Or my help!)

Well, _poor_ isn't exactly the right word to describe a student of Ouran…

I looked around Alex's room; it hadn't been all that long since I last saw it, yet already it had completely changed.

The color of the walls had gone from baby blue to a passionate, bright red, and the pictures have been re-arranged too, now with the family photos on the right wall, and her certificates for footb-…._soccer_ competitions and tournaments blue-tacked onto her left wall, circling her mirror next to the door.

The floor, thankfully, hadn't changed from its very expensive wooden floorboards, and the bed hadn't been replaced. Though it was backwards now.

That's just the way Alex is, forever changing and never one to stick to something for too long, unlike me who hadn't changed the design of my room since I moved here, I wasn't much of a person who liked changes.

When I had first heard she was on the soccer team, I didn't actually expect her to last too long on the team. I expected it to be like a pop-star craze; here one day, gone the next. However, to my surprise she was actually really, and I mean _really_ good at it, and kept improving as the months went by. In that way, she's pretty unpredictable.

Though, it was her conviction to dancing that really threw me off guard. I will always remember the moment that I first saw her dance. I had forgotten my P.E bag and had left it in the sports hall, so I had to run back and get it once school was over. I heard music playing from inside the hall, so I had crept round the back to find out who it was without disturbing.

To my surprise, it was Alex in the hall, oblivious to her surroundings as usual and moving to the beat of the song with perfect timing. It looked like her style of kicks and ducks were just like her soccer playing, so that's how I recognized her, even though I didn't know her too well at the time. I stayed, frozen on the spot as I saw her move, like a rabbit in the headlights.

To be perfectly honest, her dancing technically wasn't too great. It had too many aspartic movements and unnecessary energy usage in her steps, which reminded me of how Tom used to play guitar when he was 10 years old. But she had this passion to her movements, a thousand times greater than any kick she had delivered during soccer practice. I was witnessing a side of her that I had never seen inside the classroom or on the field, and I was soaking it in like a sponge.

She noticed me soon enough though, after one of her twists went wrong and she ended up splattered across the floor. She turned around as fast as lightning and stared at me, giving me a glare that was so mixed with anger and fear that I froze on the spot once again.

I remember her eyes feeding out the most sincere plea towards me, and her words were so potent that they cut me like a knife.

"Please…don't tell anyone" She said, panting and dripping with sweat after her routine. Her tone of voice was fairly even and indifferent, though I could tell that it wasn't a question; it wasn't even a demand in a way.

It really was a plea.

Before I had even thought about what she had said for a second, the words formed and left me in a split second.

"Promise" I said.

From then, she just walked out the room, and didn't say anything more. I got my bag and we parted ways. It was the next day that we started talking and from then on our friendship got closer and closer until we became what we are now, best friends, sisters that we chose.

After all this time, I'm pretty sure that I've seen every side of Alex. The one when she's defiant against the teachers setting more homework, the one when she's on the field, acting as leader for the entire team, including seniors who respect her and follow her orders without question. I've seen the worried and judgmental side of her when she puts on a leotard before practices, the one when she's giving her heart out in a routine that she spent 3 hours straight planning. I've even seen the side of her when she goes bright red in the face when she likes a guy a few times…

…Wait.

Oh…so that's it!

At that moment, Alex walked out of the bathroom and came to sit on the end of the bed, wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Ah, I feel so much better now!" She exclaimed "That vertical drop was ridiculous! I got so terrified when we got to the top! It's over 100 meters vertically you know! Just before we went over the top point, I clenched Mori's hand so tightly it must have gone purple! Hunny was smiling and grinning though at us! The sadist! He must enjoy watching blonde girls suffer!" she hissed, probably already calculating on how to get back at Hunny.

"You like Mori, don't you?" I asked Alex frankly, there was no sugar coating it, just point blank. After all, she would have given the exact same response if I had been in the situation, so I thought we could play on equal terms.

For a second, Alex looked at me with genuine innocence and curiosity, asking "What the hell are you going on about Kate?"

However, as soon as the question sank into her thick skull, her face went bright red once again, and her eyes widened so they looked like they were going to engulf the rest of her face, Oh how I wished I had a camera to get a picture of her horrified face.

"O-of course not!" She exclaimed, flapping her arms about in protest, before jumping off the bed and running out of her bedroom again, yelling as a futile attempt of an excuse "I'm gunna' hurl again!"

I smirked, before picking up my shoes in the doorway and yelling behind the bathroom door "My work here is done! Get some sleep ok Alex! We've got Haruhi's tutoring tomorrow!"

I walked out of the front door with a smile on my face, and looking back at the modern, complex building I grinned even more. Even though she was in denial, I knew all of the symptoms of 'Alex crush disease'

Step 1: Red in the face  
>Step 2: Inability to form sentences when the subject of 'Person X' is brought into play<br>Step 3: Avoidance of said person until unbearable  
>Step 4: Demands of chick flicks and chocolate<br>Step 5: Growing a pair and asking him out.

Step 5 only occurs until the crush has gone on for longer than a week, something very rare of the easily swayed best friend of mine.

Well, if my assumptions are correct, the poor guy should start feeling left out in approximately 3 days…maybe 4 without close contact.

I just hope that she's picked a good bloke this time. I found a little jump in my step and I began to hum, everything was going to a lot more fun around here.

**Sorry this took so long; after my exams were over…I was too scared to write!**

**I slept for 14 hours straight after the last day of exam week! It was the BEST SLEEP EVER!**

**My grades are…average. Which pissed me off to no end! I got 1 mark off an A* in my English paper! I would have got it of they didn't change the marking system for grades so that people who failed didn't fail! So then…I actually started crying!**

**Then my friends had to talk to my English teacher afterwards, as I was still in the classroom (had French next in there) trying my best to say that I'm alright…which I wasn't. There was a 3 minute silence between all of them, and then my amazing friend Charliy explained everything at lightning speed, and afterwards my all to frank, yet wonderful friend Sarah told him "It's all your fault Sir"**

…**you've gotta love my friends!**

**Still, it's not actually his fault! I was just really angry at myself for getting such a mark! If I was angry at him and thought it was his fault I wouldn't have been crying! I would have been plotting for REVENGE!**

**Eva Sirico****: Thank you so much for reviewing! I've had my eyes on naming that notebook of doom 'Kira' for a LONG time! I'm so glad you like it!**

**Escape to Ouran**** : I JUST caught your review! I have to say, you've defiantly my favourite reviewer! Sorry to hear about your bad roller-coaster experience! I've only been on a roller coaster once before…and I LOVED IT!**

**Reading your chapter now…I'm not that much into angst much but…I think I'm going to have to start calling you 'sensei' from now on…**

**Anyway, enough about my personal life. How have you guys been since I've been gone? Did this chapter make up for my absence?**

**Tell me when you click the button of reviewing doom!**


	10. Chapter 10

"I'm so tired!" Alex yawed, stretching her arms freely and nearly dropping her bag as we walked out of the St Andrews' Academy gates. It had been another long day full of pop quizzes and teachers with voices that could put a group insomniac to sleep. Alex had spent the entire night cramming for the impending respiration test in Biology, so she was feeling the worst of it.

"Are you sure you want to go round Haruhi's today?" I asked worriedly, looking at the bags under Alex's wonderfully bright blue eyes with concern. She looked so drained, I felt kind of bad for her.

In response, Alex yawned once more, and then sent me a surprisingly optimistic grin.

"I'm sure, mother!" She said, still refusing to stop grinning like a cat handing a dead bird to their owner, before looking ahead of us to the busy road we were about to cross to get to Haruhi's street "Geez" She commented "You worry way too much Kate, I bet I will be your first grey hair"

At that moment, Alex stepped onto the busy road, still in an stupor and unaware of her surroundings, just as I saw a long, expensive limo moving at about 80 miles an hour straight towards her zombie like state.

I panicked, and instantly ran out towards her, pulling her back out of the limo's path, much to my relief. If I didn't react that instant I would have had pancake for a best friend.

"I know, but without me you'd be hit by a train 3 times a day" I replied, jerking her bag back so she didn't sleepily cross the road, just as a car was about to give her the high-five of her life.

At that moment, the car I had just saved Alex's €$$ from being hit by screeched to a halt in front of me and Alex, literally inches away from my toes. The limo's tinted back seat window rolled down, revealing a woman with short brown hair, slightly tanned skin and dark grey eyes, with a posh stare to match.

Though, Alex and I weren't really paying too much attention to her looks anyway, or even her aristocratic stare, just like me, Alex was staring at the woman's crisp, famously unique red and white 'Lobelia Girl's Academy' uniform.

I looked back to Alex after I had my fill of gawking at the poor woman, but it seemed that if anything, Alex had never had enough staring time. If it was possible to let your jaw drop to the floor like in those cartoons, I'm pretty sure Alex would have done it there and then.

Thinking out it, I'm pretty sure she was drooling too. Ew.

"A-alex? I asked my best friend with more concern than I have ever felt "A-are you alight?"

At that moment, the woman in the car snapped her fingers, revealing 2 other girls behind her to come and peer over her shoulder, appearing to be singing in a quiet, though perfect harmonious chord of 'Lobelia!'

One had long, wavy light brown hair, with an elegantly poised nose, pale skin and light brown eyes, whilst the other with short brown hair, though not as short as either mine or Haruhi's, that curls inwards at the tips, creating a sort of 'flouncy' hairstyle, and dark grey eyes with a hint of indigo planted in there for good measure. Like the woman, these two were also wearing the daintily, stylish Lobelia uniforms.

I looked down at my own plain uniform of a dark blue blazer bearing the school's crest, my grey school skirt and white shirt, and once again felt incredibly underdressed to be in the presence of the rich students. A feeling of 'déjà vu' swept across me as I remembered this was how I felt entering Ouran for the first time.  
>However, I was once again pulled out of my mid-trance when the two girls stretched their arms out of the car, grabbed Alex's shirt, and literally pulled her through the limo's window. If she wasn't as robust as Alex had grown to become due to soccer practice, I thought she would have almost certainly have broken a few bones!<p>

"H-hey!" Alex exclaimed, scrambling to get out of the window and trying to get her feet back onto the pavement. I stepped towards her and grabbed her arms, preparing to pull her back in a burst of inhumane strength, but just then Alex was pulled back into the limo by the three girls inside, much to Alex's protests as I was slammed against the car's door, refusing to let go of my best friend.

Somehow in the process, the three Lobelia students had managed to pry my hands away from Alex's arms, and the two of us became separated. I saw that Alex was thrown into one of the empty limo seats, dazed but a least appearing to be unharmed. The short haired, tanned brunette turned to me, her light grey eyes sending another glance at first my face, one of horror and defiance, and then her gaze fell upon my middle-class attire.

"I suggest you stay out of this, fair maiden" She said, her facial expression meaning business, though the comment 'fair maiden' in any other circumstance would have made me double over in a hysterical laughing fit "This is a matter of the Lobelia Girls' Academy Zuka Club, and the pride of our gracious school!"

At this, the woman clicked her fingers again in a dramatic, very 'Tamaki-esk' fashion as the two other girls who had surprisingly managed to detain Alex sang the word 'Lobelia!' again in harmony, one note after the other in a haunting melody, literally managing to stun me on the spot.

At that, the limo left and made their way back onto the 80 mile an hour path, in the opposite direction to Haruhi's house, towards Lobelia Academy.

For a few moments, I just stood there, trying to process what had just happened.

Alex was almost hit by a limo.  
>The limo then proceeded to hijack my best friend.<br>The girls inside the limo were from the Lobelia 'Zuka Club'.  
>They had just driven away with Alex towards their own battleground, their school campus.<p>

What was going to happen to her?

With that panicking thought in mind, I turned towards the traffic laden streets that lead towards Haruhi's neighbourhood. Towards somebody, anybody that could help me get Alex back.

Without even thinking twice, I leaped onto the main road and started running full pelt towards the other side of the road, as oblivious as Alex would have been to any cars, bikes or angry drivers that may have been in my way.

I needed Alex back, and at that point, I didn't even care if I died trying to get her. I was terrified, I was not going to let some weird strangers kidnap my best friend, I would go to the ends of the earth to retrieve her, and I am sure she would of done the same.

COOL TRANSITION

I practically pulled the door off its hinges as I entered Haruhi's house, out of breath, though still too pumped with adrenaline from my run across the highway to care.

Haruhi was sitting at the table, doing her homework as usual with the members of the Host Club all gathered around her and proving to be the greatest form of distraction. The twins were leaning over Haruhi in a weird, slightly incest-like position with one another in a tight embrace, making Tamaki wail like a little girl in distress. If I was not so keen on getting help for Alex, I probably would of said something.

Hunny was happily eating a slice of cake at the opposite end of the table with Mori beside him, making sure that he didn't eat too much at once inside his black hole of a mouth, and Kyoya was writing in KIRA as usual, not even bothering to look up as I burst into the house.

The Host Club momentarily stopped their actions as I burst in, and Hunny tilted his head in curiosity at my flustered-ness.

"What's wrong, Kate-chan?" He asked, his eyes large and innocent looking.

"A-A-Al" Was the only sound to come out of my mouth, before my legs finally turned to jelly after catching up to all of the energy I had lost, and I literally fell onto the floor, probably face first of my arms hadn't held me up.

I didn't even pause at my face being literally inches from the ground, and I turned my head directly towards the group, who were completely frozen in either shock or were frozen to keep the laughter in.

"Alex has been kidnapped!" I yelled, and after taking a short breath to pause, continued "By Lobelia!"

The entire group, excluding Kyoya gasped. Then Tamaki stood up in a terrified, melodramatic fashion, and turned to the rest of the Host Club.

"We have no choice!" Tamaki exclaimed "We must save our dearest second-cousin-twice-removed from the evil clutches of the Zuka Club!"

Since when were Alex and Tamaki related!

Wait…Zuka Club? I didn't even mention anything like that! Though, I do remember that brunette mentioning something about a Club…

That means…they already have encountered the club!

"You know the club?" I asked, making Kyoya look up from his beloved KIRA, and answer the question.

"They once kidnapped Haruhi, and forced her to participate in a dramatic production. The leader of the club then attempted to 'steal' her first kiss in spite, to make Tamaki suffer." He replied in a calm and collected manner, in complete contrast to what I was feeling. How could he be so calm, I could feel my insides churning.

I'll give him this though; he did manage to distract me from Alex's impending doom for a few seconds as I stood up and gave him a questioning glare.

"Isn't that…kind of Lesbian-ish?" I questioned, turning my head towards Haruhi in a questioning manner "I mean, I knew you must had been a little different to live a day-to-day life with these guys, but I didn't expect that!"

I noticed Tamaki next to me turn bright, and I mean bright red, before exclaiming, stuttering slightly "T-There's no t-time to lose! We don't have enough time to discuss inappropriate things about my darling Haruhi!"

"That's right!" The twins said at once, grinning ear to ear like they already had an evil plan up their sleeves. Picking up Haruhi by her feet and arms, they carried her out of the room, all while Haruhi protested, as any sane person would.

Hunny had somehow managed to stand beside me without even noticing, and with a dead serious expression on his face he glanced up at me. His eyes had a sharpness that I have never seen before from the usual bubbly boy.

I swear, that was the most terrifying moment of my life, even if it was for only 3 seconds as he said "Let's go get Alex-chan"

Instantly, his expression resumed its regular cuteness, making me almost think it was a trick of the light as he leaped onto Mori's gigantically tall shoulders and the two left the room, with Tamaki following suit, crying out something about 'The sexuality of Alex being at stake!'

I noticed that although Hunny's expression had completely changed in those moments, Mori's still remained as stoic as ever. His eyes though, looked slightly, ever so slightly more serious than normal, arousing my suspicions.

Why did I feel that he too was worried about Alex? Maybe I'm just looking too deep into things…

Soon enough, it was just me and Kyoya in the room. He closed KIRA with a light resounding 'thud', stood up and walked towards the doorway.

Just before he left, he turned to me, his face as normal and business-like as ever.

"I suggest you come too, Miss Farnest" He said, before giving me the strangest, most cunning smile ever to grace history, like an evil dictator before a pleading servant "After all, Alex is your best friend, correct?"

Normally, I would have replied 'Of course, she's the only person the Japan I rely on! There's no way I'll let her go so easily!'

The Host Club was…weird. I wouldn't consider them 'friends', but more 'allies'. They're sort of reliable, and judging by the fact I went to them without question, I knew I trusted them, just a little bit.

So, I replied "Yeah, I guess she'll need somebody remotely sane to help her out" before walking up to the doorframe, and following Kyoya out of the door.

Walking along the sidewalk towards Lobelia with Kyoya, I was brimming with confidence, that I otherwise would not of had. We were going to save Alex, no matter what. The Host Club was by my side, so even if things did go wrong…somehow it would all turn out ok.

Besides, Kyoya was here, and if he had a plan, then nothing would go wrong.  
>…How could I say that with such certainly?<p>

**Alright, I have a challenge for you dear reviewers! If we hit 100 reviews, I will write a special chapter involving a requested fluff moment from you guys!**

**This will only happen IF we get 100 reviews though, so get typing!**

**Eva Sirico : Sorry about not updating sooner! Your review reminded me of the time my friends and I went on this elevator like, 3 times, and then went all the way to the top of the building just so we could have the feeling of rushing all the way down. SO fun! I am so glad you like the story! Your review certainly made my day!**

**Escape to Ouran**** :**** Sweet zombie Jesus sensei! Your review was long! (but, I will admit, looking at it…I squealed…) I'm not so good at sports myself, though I am COMPLETELY mal-co-ordinated (is that how you say it?), so I can't dance. Though, I am getting into archery….**

**Yes, Sarah is awesome. In fact, all of my friends are amazing (though completely bonkers!) and I'm so glad to have them supporting me! **

**Butterflies…hmmmmm…!**

**So, click the button and make me happy (in a NON-dodgy way!) after all, the more reviews I get, the faster I write!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey there! I'm so happy about the amount of reviews I've got! We've nearly hit 40, meaning on average I get 3-4 reviews per chapter! I'm so happy!**

**Anyway, here you go!**

"Is this it?" I asked, doubt clearly in the tone of my voice as I joined the Host Club and crouched on the abnormally green grass inside the school's courtyard, peaking at the building from behind a conveniently placed hedge.

Somehow, I imagined the Lobelia Girl's Academy's building to be a little more top notch with their security. I mean, they had a security camera on the front gate and the fences were lined with spikes at the top, but overall the defense was relatively easy for us to get through. The Host Club and I managed to get by without any problems, so I was having my doubts that the so called 'Academy for fine, rich young ladies' was actually the building we were sneaking around on.

I'll admit this though; the building did _look _the part.

If I had to sum it up in one word, it would probably be palace. It was made up of around three separate, large buildings, all crafted in the same detailed, Victorian design and painted white with a tinge of blue. The three buildings looked splendid as they stood alone, but together they really looked like the works of royalty. The center building was by far the largest, with an extra turret added at the front for good measure, using the two other buildings to draw the eye line onto the center building, forcing the onlooker to do nothing but marvel at the structure and design of the school.

The fancy fountain in the center of the courtyard didn't exactly agree with my doubts either.

"No need to be concerned, Miss Farnest" Kyoya commented, still writing in KIRA "The Host Club were escorted here last time to rescue Haruhi by her father. This is in fact the same location that we were crouching when we entered the school gates last ti-"

He didn't finish his sentence as I grabbed KIRA right from his grasp, closed it and tucked it under my arm. The book had begun to irritate me, and in my almost hysterical mood I forgot to restrain myself like every other time before.

"Did she just..." One of the twins, who I suspected was probably Hikaru, as he normally was the one who started the sentences said.

"Steal Kyoya's notebook?" The other twin, probably Karou completed.

I saw an expression of terrible, melodramatic horror on Tamaki's face, as he raised the back of his left palm to his forehead and promptly fainted before Haruhi, who was crouched next to him.

"Erm...Kate?" Haruhi said "You probably don't know this but touching The Sh-" She stopped herself mid-sentence, as if she was about to say her secret nickname or something "Kyoya's notebook is kind of a taboo"

"Nmm" Mori confirmed; nodding his head once as Hunny poked Tamaki's cheek curiously as he lay unconscious on the ground.

"Does this mean I'm on the guy's 'hit list' now?" I asked jokingly, though the expressions of 'you hit the nail on the head there' from the rest of the Host Club told me more than I needed to know.

Being the stubborn girl that I am though, plus my irritation towards the blooming book in the first place caused me to ignore those looks and continue as planned. I crawled along the ground towards a nearby window and cautiously peeked in.

"She must really want to see Alex-chan again" Hunny whispered to Mori beside him, looking cautiously over at Kyoya behind me, who I am positive must have been plotting a million different ways to make my life a living hell whilst drilling a hole in the back of my head with what I imagined as laser beam eyeballs.

To anybody else, it probably looked like the guy didn't care as he kicked the unconscious Tamaki and picked him up, though the Host Club knew he wanted me dead, and my 'spider sense' like feeling of somebody watching me told me more than I wanted to know about his raging temper fuming out onto me.

However, I quickly forgot everything around me as I peered into that window. I saw not only the three Lobelia students that kidnapped my poor friend, but also an abundance of girls, each wearing the now familiar white and red outfit of the Lobelia Girl's Academy uniform, squealing in delight at the object of attention in the center of a circle they had created.. The thing that caught my eye though, was what the sea of young women were circled around; it was none other than Alex, her blonde hair up in a high ponytail hairstyle, wearing the Lobelia uniform, and performing a dance routine.

Judging by the twirls and kicks she was showing off to the crowd, with quick timing and seemingly endless amounts of energy used to pull off her moves, I guessed that she was performing one of the quite new routines we choreographed. Every now and then, we would go round to one another's houses and create routines matching a certain piece of music on my iPod. One of the criteria for the dance scholarship in Lobelia was that you should create a routine to a new piece of music, so we treated our sleepovers as a chance to practice. It was tough to do, but judging by her movements and confident attitude, it looked like it had paid off.

At some point, I had let go of KIRA which had been kept under my arm. I vaguely remember hearing it hit the ground beside me as I watched Alex dance. She looked...really happy. I mean, when she's on a football field she looks exited and content enough, but it seems like she's depressed in comparison to her on a dance floor. She looked so full of excitement, joy and wondrous passion that you literally can't take your eyes off her, even for a second in fear of missing a moment.  
>Should we really take her away from the happiness she's got right now? It would be the same to taking a wild bird and caging it, only to set by the window, to look out at what it once had. Happiness and joy.<p>

"Wow" The twins said, sneaking up behind me and leaning on either one of my shoulders "She's pretty good!"

"But" One of the twins remarked, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"We've seen better." The other finished, in a tone of voice so 'matter of fact'-ly that I didn't even bother arguing. After all, knowing them they probably had seen the best of the best, being as rich as they are. Rich people, for some reason, like seeing performers in fancy theatres.

"Interesting" Kyoya said; somehow managing to collect the fallen notebook and holding KIRA once again in his grasp. He was writing something down in it, but he wasn't observing Alex as she was dancing.

He was looking at me.  
>Yesterday, 11:53PM<p>

"Right!" Tamaki proclaimed after regaining conciseness and jumping up, sneaking up to the window and peeking inside, with Hunny following suit.

Haruhi and Mori however, stayed back. Haruhi looked like she wanted to take a look, though seemed to have decided against it. Mori however, looked like he had made his decision since he was born, and remained stubbornly away from the window.

"Don't you want to see Alex?" I asked them, turning away from my best friend's routine to look at the two.

"I think it's rude to be spying on people..." Haruhi explained, glaring at the easily exited Tamaki, before adding at the end in a scolding tone, "Senpai!"

This caught the purple eyed guy's attention, as he spun around and looked at the short-haired brunette with the upmost innocence.

"What is it, my darling Haruhi?" He asked, in a voice that reminded me of an overbearing father talking to his 'precious child'.

She didn't say anything, but somehow her look seemed to have reminded him of his purpose in Lobelia in the first place, as he jumped up and exclaimed "I remember! We have to save her! Let's go!"

The rest of the Host Club seemed reluctant to move away from the window, but appeared to obey their leader's orders, as they got up from their spot by the window and began walking towards the school's huge double doors, only to be halted by Mori crossing their path.

He didn't say a word, but instead indicated towards me, nodding.

I guessed that was the signal for me to give out a plan or something, but in truth I had nothing running through my head. I didn't even want to rescue her any more. She looked unharmed, and even better, she looked happy, something that wanted her to have. Unbridled joy.

"I don't think we should stop them" I said, looking back at the window behind me "The Zuka Club doesn't seem to be doing anything bad to her, so she's safe for now."

"But Kate-chan-" Hunny began, looking at me worriedly before I cut him off.

"Sorry to have troubled you guys...and girl" I said, looking down at the ground. "I'll wait here until she comes home, go on ahead"

I looked up and smiled, giving them what I hoped was a sign that they didn't need to worry "I'll be fine. See you tomorrow, Ok Haruhi? I think after this Alex will want to get into Lobelia more than ever!"

"Sure" Haruhi replied, tugging Tamaki's sleeve and walking off, dragging the melodramatic blonde with her "I'm free after school tomorrow all afternoon, so I'm prepared to drag both of you into Geography revision!"

My stomach twisted at the mention of Geography, and how terribly it went last time. Instantly I regretted even suggesting studying tomorrow.

The twins soon followed Haruhi and Tamaki's example and walked back home. Kyoya however refused to walk back, and had to call a taxi to get him home. He wrote a little more in KIRA by the sidewalk, completely ignoring me as I texted beside him to one of my friends from England, before the taxi arrived and he left. Within about half an hour of arriving in Lobelia with the entire Host Club, only Mori, Hunny and I were left.

"Aren't you two going to go home?" I asked them as they sat next to me on the sidewalk "It's going to get dark soon"

"Mori and I want to see Alex-chan when she comes out of Lobelia too!" Hunny replied, pouting childishly. "You think you can have her all to yourself, that's so mean!"

He leaned in closer to my ear, then cupped his hands and whispered into it "I think Takeshi thinks so too!"

I laughed at his comment, guessing that Hunny was actually much more observant than he put out and had guessed the relationship between Alex and Mori as I had. It was clear to anybody that knew Alex for more than 5 minutes that she liked Mori, but the comment implying Mori's feelings surprised me a little.

"Can I ask the two of you something?" I said, looking at both Hunny and Mori, genuinely curious "How old are you guys?"

"Takashi and I are both 17 years old!" Hunny exclaimed, pointing to Mori, who right about now looked twice the size of the small blonde, and then pointed to me "How old are you, Kate-chan?"

"I'm 16..." I replied, before looking at the pair of boys with curiosity. I heard Hunny call 'Mori' the name 'Takashi' before, though nobody else did.

"Why do you call Mori by a different name?" I asked Hunny, my curiosity overflowing at this point.

"But Kate-chan, Takashi is Mori's name!" Hunny replied, the glint in his eyes both looking mischievous and honest at the same time...if that was possible anyway.

"Mn" Mori confirmed, nodding assertively. I really didn't exactly see what Alex saw in this guy, I swear he did nothing but make brief noises! Geez, a Disney prince had more lines than this!  
>"Then why are you the only one to call him Takashi?" I asked, my question directed towards Hunny, though my gaze still on Mori sitting on the sidewalk.<p>

"Not many people call him Takashi, only family members really" Hunny explained "And that's ok, because I'm his cousin!"

Whoa...what?

"You two are...cousins?" I exclaimed, looking at and forth at one another, trying to detect even a simple resemblance. I didn't really know my cousins that well, but we all either shared the same eye color, hair color or attitude depending on what side of the family we came from. These two...looked nothing alike.

"Yep!" Hunny replied, jolly as ever in contrast to my dumbstruck expression.

"Don't worry, it's normally quite difficult for people to get their heads round the idea" Mori commented, throwing me off my horse even more so.

He said another sentence! I swear that's only happened, like...one before!

However, our conversation was briefly cut short when a sea of squealing young ladies, all donned in the Lobelia Girl's Academy uniform poured out of the school's doors, heading towards the gate.

The sea of girls quickly parted as the ladies left the school gates, not even giving half a thought to the two boys and me sitting outside on the sidewalk. Soon enough, the crowd dispersed into only one, blonde and blue eyed girl standing before us, wearing the Lobelia Girl's uniform, and looking down at Mori, Hunny and me with a startled expression on her face.

It was none other, than Alex.

**Eva Sirico: I have to say, Tamaki is by far the easiest to write, and the most fun. If all else fails: make him do something over the top! Well, I do try to kill my readers through laughter! It's all about the small jokes in life I guess...**

**Thecrazyblondchick4: I'm so happy you like the story! I don't think I'm that great of a writer, I just do it because it's fun to keep myself busy! ...I wouldn't say that I'm too good at pairing development...I don't know how to make Kyoya fall in love and NOT be OOC...maybe if I threw a pile of money in his face, he would write it for me...**

**Escape to Ouran : Gah! FINALLY somebody who has the 'ball' magnet power! I always have netballs hitting my face! You should make time to do archery! . . ! (Arigato, Sensei, for the super-special signature!)**

**OwlsAreFancy: You and your comment completely made my day. I'm so overjoyed that you think so highly of this story! May I say, as a compulsive fangirl I HATE OOC-ness, so the fact you think I've got their characters right is fantastic! I know the feelings of the Mary-sues on this site. Let me tell you, many hours have been spent thinking and laboring on how to make my OCs NOT Mary-sue-ish, and even then I'm still on my toes (please tell me if they're crossing that VERY fine border) Oh, and yes. My English accent is awesome, and I'm proud to say that I speak in the typical posh-ness too :)**

**tokiluv: I hope I've updated soon enough!**

**Special thanks to my beautiful and fantastically creative BETA reader my_forgotten_rose!**

**so there you have it! I was so happy when I saw those reviews, that I had to start writing, even on my dad's laptop in the areas of no internet whilst on holiday!**

_**'You say classy, PLANET EARTH!' -Ron Burgundy **_


	12. Chapter 12

**So sorry about the delay guys! Now onto the story!**

"Erm…hey" I said, shifting my weight from one foot to another awkwardly as I felt my face become increasingly warm I instinctively planted my gaze onto the ground to avoid looking at my best friend directly in the eyes, and consequentially blurt out every single thought I had concerning her from escaping my brain.

"…Hey" Alex replied cautiously, surveying the small band of three that Hunny, Mori and I had created in front of Lobelia's huge, detailed iron gates "What're you guys doing here?"

I removed my gaze from my feet and looked up at Alex. I could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn't mad, but I was still surprised to see an expression of pure and innocent confusion on her face. I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at her.

"Well" I laughed "After you were kidnapped by three Lobelia girls, what else would a friend done other than gather her forces and wait for your escape!"

Alex raised an eyebrow, and then turned to Hunny and Mori, or rather, the spaces that Hunny and Mori were occupying a few moments ago.

Somehow in the brief moment our eyes were off the two boys, they had taken off and must have gone home. That was just wonderful.

"Er…where are the guys?" Alex asked, somehow looking more confused than before, staring blankly at the space they used to stand.

I walked up to Alex, and pushed her along the sidewalk a few steps, indicating that we should be getting home. I would have pushed her further, but she quickly understood the message and ran ahead, before turning around ten meters ahead of me and yelling; "Race you!"

I grinned, and began running. Although Alex was miles more athletic than me, and would easily beat me on the track for P.E. lessons, it was always fun to run back home with her. Besides, with her so tired after the Lobelia dancing, maybe I stood a chance this time. I smiled gently, I was glad to have my best friend back.

COOL TRANSITION**  
><strong>

"So" I said, nudging Alex in the ribs as we walked beside the road on the way home; limos and posh cars passing us by without even a second glance. "What was the best all girl's academy in the world like? Tell me every detail!"

Alex laughed, tipping her head back as she did so and allowing her somehow still perfectly positioned blonde hair to hang freely behind her. Once she had calmed down, she looked at me with a wide grin on her face. "It was both the most amazing and the scariest place I have ever been to! Firstly, the three girls that kidnapped me told me in their limo that they were part of this club, called the 'Zucchini' club or something-"

"I think their called the 'Zuka' club" I interrupted her, earning a roll of the eyes from Alex.

"Details, details Kate" Alex said, waving her hand in front of her as many Japanese seem to do to say 'no big deal'. "Anyway, then we got out of the limo and I walked down this really long red carpet, surrounded by these crazed fan girls. They must had been fans of the club because the three girls, particularly the leader with the short hair, Benibara was her name I think...Well anyway she was flirting with them as if the entire fan girl army were some sort of lesbian swarm!" she exclaimed, her hands were thrust into the air for emphasis.

Alex paused to take in a long, deep breath, giving me enough time to process the information Alex was spewing out at a hundred miles an hour, before continuing.

"Then, they made me put on the Lobelia uniform! Oh it was SUCH high quality Kate! It was like, a thousand times better than the best dress I've got! Then, they wanted me to dance for the Zuka club's followers in the dance club, and...oh you'll never guess what they said Kate!"

"What did they say?" I asked

"They said that I was perfect for a dance scholarship! And that I should start as soon as term's over!" She yelled, jumping up and down with glee as we walked along the pavement. The next thing I knew, she had jumped on me and was giving me the most lung-crushing hug I had ever had.

"Oh Kate!" She exclaimed "Thank you so much!"

"What the heck for?" I asked, trying to pry Alex's arms off of me.

"For everything! I mean, it's all because of you I can switch schools and move towards the future!" She replied, still bouncing up and down after letting go of me, how could she have that much energy?

"By the way Alex," I asked, now walking at a slower pace as we approached the crossroad where we parted ways "What exactly ARE your plans for the future? I've never asked, but's it's been nagging at the back of my mind for the whole of today"

"But of course," Alex laughed lightly "I'm going to Lobelia, you idiot!"

"Yeah, I know that." I replied "But what I mean is, what about after that?"

Alex paused, before sighing, and replying in the most serious tone of voice that I had ever heard her since she told me her dream in the first place. "Well, my plan was...for me to go...BACK to New York. And work professionally there."

I stopped in my tracks at that. Not just because we had reached the crossroad that we would pass ways either.

"What are you saying, Alex?" I asked, not daring to look at my best friend. "You know that I'm planning to stay in Japan, right?" this news hurt, I couldn't help but feel sad.

"...Yeah, I know." Alex replied. I could tell by the tone of her voice she hated this moment just as much as I was. "But, we will have to part ways at some point, you know?"

I suddenly heard the footsteps of Alex behind me stop as abruptly as I did. "I'm sorry Kate." She said.

Then, I heard Alex running. I closed my eyes so I couldn't see her run past me and down her street. No doubt at she would be distraught and pained by that one conversation, and I understood why, but for me, I felt that it was ten times worse.

My best friend, the one person I though in the entire world that I could depend on had just forced me to address the inevitable, yet completely unthinkable: Alex and I aren't going to be this close forever. No matter what would happen, if it be different colleges or jobs in different parts of the world, we would end up being separated sooner or later.

I ran, as fast as I could; faster than I had when Alex was kidnapped, faster than on a sports field, faster than my legs would ever carry me again. I felt that I would do anything to get away from that spot, away from that conversation. But yet, those words continued to ring though my head.

'We will have to part ways some time, you know?'

'My plan was for me to go back to New York'

'I'm sorry Kate'

I felt my chest become heavier and heavier the further I ran, and my legs felt as if they were made of lead, but I refused to stop running. As soon as I ran down my drive, I sprinted, without even noticing the limo parked outside my house.  
>I opened the door and ran upstairs to my room, not even bothering to see my brother and mother both sitting at the dining table, talking to somebody that if I had glanced upon, I would have recognized in a heartbeat.<p>

I'll give you a hint; he had on him, a black notebook.

I leapt onto the bed, and let everything out.  
>Anybody that has had a proper cry would know that it's nothing like the sobbing or screaming in Hollywood movies. It's thousands times louder, more distraught and horrific to listen to than on the big screen.<br>I'm not afraid to say that I cried properly as I lay on that bed, and I've had more than enough attempts at strangling the sobs in boarding school to know that it can hold nothing to a proper wail.

After a good, solid ten minutes of sobbing, I had calmed down. Well, calmed down wasn't exactly the best way to put it...more like have moved from being a dramatic opera scene to falling into a spiraling depression.

I sat on the bed, emotionally exhausted. Not even bothering to change out of my school uniform, I sank into my bed, wrapped myself up in the covers, and slowly drifted off into a light, welcomed sleep. I half hoped that everything would be a dream, and that I'd wake up, and today didn't happen. Alex didn't be kidnapped by Lobelia, she didn't get accepted, and she didn't reveal her plans to move to New York after her time in school was up.

Of course, it never works like that, and I'm not the kind of person as to fool myself with such notions.

COOL TRANSITION 

"I wonder what happened today..." I faintly heard the voice of my mother remark, as she said this; she straightened the covers around my half-asleep state. I felt the warmer patches of the covers move to different areas of my body as she spread the sheets more evenly.

"I don't think I've seen her act like that since we moved to Japan." I heard my brother Tom say, his voice laced in concern. I wanted to sit up, and tell him that I was ok, but my body refused to move, and my eyes refused to open. Everything felt heavy, like something was sitting on me, refusing to move.

The only sound to come out of me was a mild groan, which sounded more like I was dreaming something and mumbling rather than responding to my brother's statement.

"Maybe something happened on the way home?" I heard my mother ask, kissing my forehead gently before stepping backward. As she did so, I felt her long chestnut brown hair brush against my cheek like it did when I was younger, when I needed a goodnight kiss.

I felt comfortable and safe here, in my home with my family.

However, my sense of security was completely shattered as I heard an altogether too familiar voice, one of a cool demeanor that he had when he was writing in KIRA.

"That seems likely, seeming as the Host Club and I were with her during the afternoon. Perhaps there are ripples in the relationship between Alex and her?"

'Dam that smart-** to hell!' I thought 'He knows too much!'

"You know," Tom commented, his tone of voice lighter than before, meaning that I knew he wasn't addressing my half-conscious state. "I don't like you all that much. You know too much about people."

'You've only just realized?!'I mentally screamed.

"Research is useful to the way I and the Host Club function, Tomas Garfield Farnest." Kyoya retorted. "For example, it will be vital for me to know that you and several friends have formed a moderately successful rock band, performing in a week's time at the Tokyo Music Festival to open for various other rock bands, in case our Host Club's 'King' decides that he wants to get to know you more. It is very difficult to get backstage passes without notifying the manager beforehand..."

I heard my brothers familiar, strong and confident footsteps drift slowly away from my earshot, meaning that he had left the room. I love how my brother did that, just up and left a conversation as if he had better things to do. It may sound odd to you, I know. However, when you've seen him do it to teachers, managers, producers, parents and most of all, bullies you gain a certain respect for the confidence he possesses to do such a thing.

"Would you like some tea?" I heard my mother's soft, knowing voice say. After the third teacher had been 'walked off' by Tom, she managed to predict the moment that his victims would want a sit down and some nice tea to think over what made Tom walk off.

However, Kyoya wasn't a teacher, nor was he a manager, producer, parent or bully. He was an aristocratic, intelligent high school student.

"No thank you, Mrs. Farnest." Kyoya replied politely.

"I'll go make some for me and Tom, then." Mum said. A moment later, a trail of quiet, yet assured steps left the room at a quick pace, as if they were on a mission.

Kyoya didn't say anything, but I heard the telltale sound of a fountain pen quickly making its mark on paper, meaning the bloke was writing in KIRA again. He was undoubtedly taking notes of my room, in its recently cleaned glory.

Last weekend, my mother decided that I needed to clear up the perfectly habitable bomb site that I had for a bedroom. Meaning in other words, my weekend would be completely lost tracking down the questionable blue blob under my bed that I swear was slowly learning to evolve and eat my socks.

After 20 consecutive hours of pain and sweat, including a funeral for my questionable blue blob (after eating a dirty sock), my room looked rather normal for a human being; there were about 100 books perched on my large, tall bookshelf covering the light green wall opposite my bed. There was also a desk covered in homework that I had yet to hand in by the wall on the right hand side of the door, my phone perched triumphantly on top. The final pieces of furniture in my room were my bed on the furthest wall from the door and a mahogany cupboard beside the bed.

'That $%&^*head Kyoya is evaluation me by my room, and taking notes!' I yelled inwardly. I was about to go into my own personal mind theatre, presenting myself with all of the different methods to get a small amount of revenge when I heard my mobile phone 'bleep!', meaning I had a text from someone.

It was rare enough as it is for my phone to be charged, let alone to receive a text. I was about to get up and pick up my phone from the desk when I heard Kyoya leave the room.

His footsteps oozed with confidence. They were calm, collected and walked with a perfect tempo. It was as if even his walking pace was drilled and perfected with the life of aristocracy in mind. Somehow, that bothered me.

'Even his feet are trained for the life of the upper class.' I thought. 'That's...kind of depressing, to think of what different lives they live from mine. Not sad for me, though, but for them. How weird. I'm feeling sorry for a guy I barely know because he seems too perfectly molded...'

I heard him suddenly stop at the door, and then I heard his perfectly ironed clothes rustle slightly, as if he had turned for something.

"You know, Miss Farnest." He said, his voice still cool and calm, yet hinted with something I couldn't quite figure out. Amusement, perhaps? "You look rather cute when you're trying to look like you're sleeping. You remind me of Haruhi, in a way. You two have the same demeanor, with slight differences."

With that last remark, I heard him shut the door.

**Super-special-awesome fantastic thank you to my absolutely awesome BETA reader! my_forgotten_rose!**

**So that's chapter 12 guys! Sorry about the delay once again! I tried writing, but nothing would work...I knew exactly WHAT I wanted to write; just not HOW to put it into words...I hope this will do.**

**Currently in France on holiday, and there is no internet...except if you go into town and use the multimedia centre. That's how I got this to you guys!**

**Also, I aimed to post this yesterday, but France had a public holiday, and the village where the multimedia centre is was completely rammed with people going to the car show, and the market, and the concert in the evening, and the fun-fair...so, yeah.**

**Sorry again, I can't do the review replies this time either, as I don't have the internet access time to get your names and reviews, then write down replies. I wanted to get this out as soon as I finished it, so I'm just going to do double replies next chapter.**

**See you next time!**


	13. Chapter 13  Oooh! Unlucky for some!

**Wait...what?! An update without a 15 month wait?! WHAT IS THIS!?**

**Just a head's up, this chapter is more setting things up for later.**

**Thank you so much to my FANTASTICALLY AWESOME BETA my_forgotten_rose!**

I leapt out of my bed the instant Kyoya had closed the door. Before I had even time to think, my hand was already on the doorknob, prepared to open the door and blurt out everything I knew to a guy I'd known for literally under a month. Luckily, I paused at that moment to hear Kyoya's calm and controlled footsteps make their way down the corridor, and fade away as he made his way down the steps.

"What am I doing?" I muttered to myself, letting go of the doorknob and sitting down on the chair at my desk. For a few minutes, I didn't even remember breathing as I organized the cascade of emotions and thoughts rushing through my brain like a gigantic, powerful waterfall, in a way it was overwhelming.

Ok, first things first. Alex wants to move back to New York, after she graduates Lobelia. She has known this for some time, though had never talked to me about it.

Did she not trust me? Surely we will still be friends if she moves back to America, and I stay in Japan. There are many ways to keep in contact, we just have to try, it wasn't that hard, with technology today and good old fashioned letters.

Despite my inner assurances, the back of my mind kept drifting to what happened after boarding school. I remember, Todd, Jack, Linda and I all exchanged phone numbers for the purpose of staying in touch. We kept in contact for a while, but now...when was the last time I spoke to them?

That scared me. I knew that I was no way as close to the three as I was back in boarding school. Would it end the same for me and Alex?

Is that why she didn't tell me?

Even then, it seems a bit odd to just tell me now, when she's going to Lobelia next term about her plans.

Then, it hit me.

She must have only just decided this, after thinking it over. There's no other explanation.

I laughed half-heartedly to myself, at I sat at my desk, putting my hands on my knees as I did so, then, moving those hands to my forehead, covering my eyes.

"I'm such an idiot" I muttered to myself. "She had just used all of her courage to tell me, and how did I react? I ran home and cried like a baby!"

I removed my hands, and looked up to my ceiling, as if I was making a statement to heaven and all of their unstoppable forces.

"That's it! I'm texting her right now to apologies!" I yelled, dramatically reaching for my touch screen phone beside me.

It was at that moment that I remembered I had recently received a text.

I blinked. The number was one I didn't recognize, which disturbed me.

I decided to look at it anyway, and I nearly jumped out of my seat at the message.

' NOW!' The message read.

My eyes widened, and instantly my imagination began to get the better of me.

'Oh God! What if it's a serial killer?! No, what if it's a pedophile?! What if it's a serial killer pedophile?! Gah! I'm too young to die! There are so many things I want to do in life! Like...um...what do I want to do? Oh well, one thing I don't want to do in life is die by chainsaw serial killing pedophile! I'd make a terrible lampshade!' Were among some of the thoughts rushing through my head at 20,000 miles an hour as I stared at the text, my breathing rate increasing with every thought.

After a solid five minutes of panicking, I managed to hyperventilate and had to grab a paper bag to calm myself down. My vision stopped blurring, and I managed to think straight.

Ok, so maybe if it isn't a serial killing pedophile. Who else could it be? The Host Club? Haruhi?

'Most likely' I thought. 'Why the creepy message though?'

I looked up at the ceiling, holding my phone in my right hand idly as I said to the plastered roof "Oh mighty fate, which determines all...really control us all...please, sort this out!"

I guess fate really does exist, as at that moment my phone violently vibrated in my hand, causing me to squeak in surprise a little, though I managed to muffle the sound by quickly dropping my phone and covering my mouth with my hands.

I picked up my phone, and surely enough, the unfamiliar number popped up.

'Well, you only live once!' I mentally urged myself as I pressed the green 'accept call' button on the screen of my phone, and put the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly, speaking in Japanese in case it indeed was the Host Club. "Kate Farnest here."

"Kate?!" Exclaimed the caller, who I still didn't recognize. The voice was defiantly female, and the way she said my name nearly made me drop the phone. She had a strong, assertive voice that sounded a touch irritated. She reminded me of an older sister who just found her younger sibling hiding in the coat-section of her favorite shop, after spending forever looking for her.

Although it wasn't any of this that alarmed me; the way she said my name was nothing like anybody from the Host Club, or even anybody from St Andrews, not even Alex. Alex said my name by ignoring the't' in Kate, so it sounded a bit like 'Kay'. The Host Club had adopted the way Alex said my name as well, so that ruled them out. The way the caller said my name was distinctly English, properly pronouncing the't' like my mother and father did.

Then, it hit me. There was only one person I knew that combined an assertive tone with a touch of annoyance, whilst still keeping the way she pronounced her words like all of the students at boarding school were taught to.

"Kate, you're speaking in some kind of Chinese language again!" The woman yelled in English, a language that I barely hear spoken without an American accent unless it's my mother or brother speaking to me. "Please don't tell me you've forgotten our tea-drinking, scone eating ways of good old England!" She declared both melodramatically and mockingly.

"Linda!" I exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear as I blabbered to her in English at supersonic speed. "I thought you were a pedophile or serial killer! What the heck happened to your old phone? You scared the living daylights out of me! Oh my God it's been so long since I've heard your irritating, upper class English accent! Is it sad to say I've missed it? Why haven't you called me earlier?!"

Linda didn't speak for a few seconds, before replying in a slightly disappointed tone of voice, "So I guess you haven't forgotten how to speak English."

"How could I?" I laughed in reply over the phone. "We learn it every day at school! Plus mum and Tom speak it at home all the time!"

"Yeah. Whatever you say multilingual freak." She replied dismissively. "Anyway, in reply to the burst of questions you just gave me; Firstly, my old phone kind of got thrown in the river by Todd, so he bought me a new one and has to top me up every month for a year, or I said I'd get my dad to sue him for destruction of private properly or whatever. My accent is not upper class, its 'well gangster bruv'. Also, I lost my memory card when my phone was unjustly tossed into the river Thames so I couldn't contact you. Todd's phone was destroyed tragically after a motor bike ran it over on the M25 just days after my mobile was thrown in the river, and Jack had changed his sim card due to a spam mail guy calling him ten times a day about his PPI claim."

"Oh." I replied, blowing a small strand of brown hair out of my face. "I cut my hair, by the way."

"What?!" Exclaimed Linda. "You cut off your nice, luscious blue tipped hair that I especially dyed for you in the middle of the night when you were asleep as a going away present?!"

"Yep." I replied "I actually did it before we arrived in Japan, as my mother threw a fit after seeing it and demanded an emergency cut by the nearest hair dresser."  
>Linda sighed "Oh well, at least I tried to make you look cool…How are you at the moment?" She asked. <p>

I was about to reply 'Great, you?' as I normally would do when people asked how I was, but I suddenly remembered the events of today, and especially what had happened between me and Alex. Suddenly I didn't feel all that great. I was never a person to straight up lie to one of my friends, so instead I replied with a melancholy sigh, "Not all that great, actually. I'm really glad you called; I needed some cheering up."

"Oooh! Sounds like someone needs a happy pill!" Said another voice; It was male, but sounded mockingly effeminate. "You know, darling, bananas are really good for your pains this time of the month, they're meant to replace the-"

The guy was cut off suddenly, and I heard muffled protests coming from the other side of the line, meaning that Linda probably was covering his mouth, or gagging him with a sweaty sock. It was at that moment that I knew it was Todd who had just spoken to me; there's nobody else in the world that Linda can be so violent towards.

"Hey Kate!" Yet another male voice said, this one sounding deeper, more calm and mature than the two previous. "How's Japan going?"

"Jack?" I asked, somehow grinning even more than before. "Why…how are you guys all talking to me? Are you over at Linda's dorm again?! Without me?!"

"Erm…sorry Kate!" Linda contributed "I forgot to mention you're on speaker at the moment!"

"Oh! You'll never guess what Kate!" I heard Todd exclaim, somehow managing to evade Linda's skillful sock-in-the-mouth treatment "Guess where we are right now!"

"Erm…"I said, confused. Weren't they at Linda's dorm in the boarding school? Why would they ask me where they are? "I don't know…boarding school?"

"Wrong!" Jack butted in, his voice sounding energetic and full of humor, like a quiz show host.

"Since when are we actually in school?" Linda said "You know we've never actually attended a full day of lessons there!"

Indeed, at boarding school the group and I would often skive off lessons to meet one another and go off. For one reason or another, the teachers never complained about the problem children leaving the classroom during inspection time…

"Alright, so where are you?" I asked, getting slightly inpatient.

"We're at the airport!" Todd and Linda said in unison.

I blinked, astonished. It took me a minute to figure out that they weren't joking, and then I asked carefully "Where are you going?"

"Japan." Jake replied, his voice calm and unaffected by the disruption that Todd and Linda were clearly causing by yelling into a phone at the airport.

I didn't say anything for a few minutes. I was lost in thought, imagining how they got out of lessons and managed to sneak aboard a plane to the other side of the world. Even at inspection time the teachers would never let them get away with it.

"Are you crazy?!" I yelled. "Why the &^*( are you going to Japan during the school term?! There's no way that the school will let this slide!"

"Actually, they kind of did." Linda replied, ignoring the anger coating my voice "They were the ones who told us to go."

"They're paying for the flight and accommodation too." Todd added, sounding overly smug. "Jealous?"

"What's there to be jealous of?! I live in Japan!" I yelled in reply, making enough noise now to notify mum and Tom that I was awake, and probably getting the three odd looks from people in the airport.

"Whatever. Anyway, want to know why we're coming to Japan?" Not even allowing me to reply, Linda continued "The school sent us to stea- I mean, inspire the students of Ouran Academy to come to our vastly superior school: Parkinson Boarding School!" Linda said the last line so dramatically I couldn't help but burst into laughter; she sounded just like the headmistress of the school.

"Well, that's our hidden intention anyway." Jack said. "However, on the surface, it's a simple exchange of three students from two prestigious schools to increase cultural awareness within the society of the upper crust."

I snorted, "How the hell did you three get chosen for such a task?" I knew there was no way that the headmistress would allow the three worst students of Parkinson Boarding School represent the school on international terms without a fight.

"Not much was needed to be done, actually." Todd replied, I could sense the smirk in his voice, meaning that foul play was involved. "We just had to dispose of the other 248 ballots in the school raffle held to make the decision, and replace them with our names…no biggie."

"Great." I said, slightly stunned at the effort the three put into being chosen to come to Japan. "Glad we got that sorted."

"So, when do you want to meet up?" Linda asked, her voice slightly embarrassed and…uncertain? That was odd. Linda was never uncertain.

"When are you arriving?" I asked, still a little worried about Linda. "We can plan around that."

"We'll be landing at 5 am tomorrow!" Todd contributed, sounding eager and happy, somehow even more carefree than a few minutes ago.

"Well, I won't be awake at that time…" I said, trailing off as I planned what to do. "How about I meet you the day after you land, after your first day of school at Ouran?"

"Sounds like a plan." Jake said. I could almost hear the hidden smile in his voice.

"See you in two days then Kate!" Linda said, suddenly sounding completely assertive and in control once again, which relaxed me. "Meet us at the gate, I guess!"

"I will!" I said, sensing the end of the conversation. "See you all soon then!"

"Bye!" All three said in unison. Then, I looked at my phone. They had disconnected.

I couldn't help but grin ear to ear as I ran down the staircase into the kitchen. I felt my face begin to hurt from smiling, but I didn't even care; I was going to see my friends again. The friends who made boarding school bearable, the friends who I hadn't seen face to face for over 2 years now.

I was so happy and excited for the meet up in two days that I had completely forgotten the reason why I picked up the phone in the first place.

For the first time in a really, really long time, I had completely forgotten about Alex.

**Cool! so, yeah... maybe 13 ain't so unlucky after all!**

**Alright. So now, the replies!**

**Eva Sirico: I really wanted Kate to steal Kyoya's beloved KIRA for once, so I wrote it in on a whim...I'm so glad you like it!**

**tokiluv: Annd I had to ruin my *Wonderful* update track record by posting chapter 12 so late...whoops? I'm really glad you felt happy for Alex! I'm happy that others are happy! Whoop! Oh well, at least this one was quick-ish!**

**Lady Victoria Black : Squuuuueeealll! I'm SO happy that you love it! This is the greatest comment ever to make my day! WHHHOOOOPPPP!**

**PreciousJewel01: Yeah...I know a heck of a lot of people don't like OC stories (Including my AMAZING best friend!) but I'm glad you gave it a try despite that! I imaging the notebook has a life of its own in the series, so I thought it would be fun to tput it in the story! I'm glad you like it! (I'LL TRY TO ADD A TWIN PRANK SHORTLY!)**

**Escape to Ouran : SENSEI! I'm so happy that I'm special to you! If only Kate heard that she was your idol...she'd freak! When my friends go off and leave me on my own, I feel the same. In fact, when they do something (one of my friends is trying to write a novel about aliens and the post apocalyptic world...it's VERY long!) I feel the same way as Kate, so I decided to put that in the story. SUPER SORRY ABOUT THE LATE UPDATE SENSEI!**

**Of Kings and Queens: Sorry about the grammatical error...I'll do better next time!**

**Otaku-Lord-Bubbles: I'll be very happy to make a chapter like that, and your comment has been making me plan it out already! Maybe I could have THAT as the special chapter when I get 100 reviews...if not, I'll just pop it in at the end :P**

**Visual: I'm glad you like the story...and yeah...I know my characters need a LOT more depth and personality. Funny that you picked up on the surreal narrative that I was going for...I truth, this was just going to be Alex and Mori fall in love, and Kate watches from the sidelines as her friend and her drift apart...but in the end, commenters made me change that into a Kyoya and Mori OC story. I'll do my best to make the story better for you! Also, don't feel worried about leave non-anonymous comments...I'm not going to troll you for constructive criticism, as I writer, I'm always aiming to get better, in case I want to ACTUALLY write a novel of my own. That's why I started writing fanfiction, to hone in on my writing skills for the future! **

**Fangirl429: Clicking stories randomly is awesome, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise! I am so happy that you like the story this much! (In fact, it was your comment that got me out of my mini-depression by Visual and got me writing this thing again!) thanks for the review! P.S. I LOVE your profile picture!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry this took so long to get out guys, I had block...again. But yeah! Whoop! It's out!**

** Special thanks to my-forgotten-rose for BETA-ing! You are SUCH a star!**

Those two days in which I spent my last hours of solitude went by disturbingly quickly.

As I stood in front of the baby-pink giant gates of Ouran Academy, and as I watched the expensive limos pass me by, I pondered on what exactly I did over those two days.

It had been the weekend, so I didn't go to school.

I hadn't even had the courage to speak to Alex after my conversation with Linda, Jack and Todd.

I hadn't been outside the house.

So that left me no other choice, I spent the entire weekend locked up in my room, watching videos of cats on YouTube.

Suddenly, I began to feel I had completely wasted my final days of peace.

"Kate-chan!" I suddenly heard from behind me, and before I could even turn around I felt a small body jump onto my back, as if I was giving the person a piggy-back. Instantly I knew it was.

"Hunny?" I asked, turning my head behind to glimpse the older male blonde smiling sweetly back at me.

"How are you Kate-chan?" Hunny asked, jumping off me and running round so he faced my front, still smiling as innocently as ever.

Seriously, this guy is a year older than me?!

I smiled fondly at him, and replied "I'm waiting for three of my friends…They were meant to start attending school today, and I promised to meet up with them."

"Your friends are the exchange students?" Asked the harmonic voices of the twins in unison, scaring me out of my wits as they appeared behind me on each side.

"Y-yes!" I stuttered, jumping back instinctively as the twins completely destroyed my personal space and turning around. (It's different with Hunny; he certainly doesn't look like he'll harass you!) "You've got a problem with that? I'm sorry if they've done anything disruptive to your school, I really am!"

"No, they haven't done anything." One of the twins said, which I think may be Karou, but I can never truly tell. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as his brother continued.

"It's just…they're very different from you." The other twin I guessed must have been Hikaru finished the twins' statement.

"Different?" I asked, confused, yet still unsurprised at the statement. "Different how?"

"Well, to start," Hikaru began, shrugging his shoulders in an 'it's pretty obvious though I'll explain it to you anyway' motion.

"They're troublemakers." Karou continued, mimicking his twin's body language. "Not to mention that they're-"

"Stupid?" Asked a female voice, speaking Japanese, though the accent was pretty terrible, from behind me, once again making me jump out of my skin.

"Seriously?!" I exclaimed. "Is today 'sneak up behind Kate to scare her day'?! What is with everybody!?" I turned around yet again to see a teenaged girl with red hair cut in a feminine 'bob' style. Her bright green eyes glinting with humor as she grinned mischievously The yellow dress of Ouran High School had a band on the right sleeve with the writing 'Exchange' in red and white.

"…Linda?!" I exclaimed, my voice cracking slightly with emotion as I jumped onto the slender girl and gave her a big hug.

Linda happily hugged me back and we quickly began laughing hysterically, completely forgetting about the Ouran students beside us.

"I missed you so much!" Linda exclaimed, breaking the hug and surveying me up and down. "You've gotten thinner, and taller!" She said, smiling widely as she tugged a small bunch of strands of hair, making my head move slightly "Not to mention your hair style; you didn't need it to be that short!"

"I know, but I wanted a big change, plus I always liked girls with short hair." I indicated to Linda's hairstyle, longer than both my hair and Haruhi's, though still short for girls' hair. I instantly remembered that the twins, plus Hunny were standing behind me. I turned around, and smiled awkwardly.

"Guys," I said, indicating to Linda and scratching the back of my head "This is my friend from boarding school, Linda Thompson. Linda, these are the guys from the Ouran High School Host Club, Hikaru Hitachiin, Karou Hitachiin and Hunny Mitsukuni."

"Hey! I remember you two!" Linda said, pointing the twins with a look of distaste and annoyance on her face, eyebrows furrowed. "You two nearly blew me up in chemistry class!"

"Er, no." The twins said in unison, a facial expression that only could be described as 'what're you, stupid?' also being perfectly mirrored onto each twin. "You nearly blew up yourself in chemistry class; we were nothing but mere bystanders."

"Yeah, and of course mere bystanders would be adding fuel to the fire and just kept adding all the wrong ingredients whilst it was blowing up!"

"Ha!" Said the over-exited, immature, and familiar voice of Todd as he jumped out from behind the left pillar that the pink gate was attached to and pointing an accusing finger at Linda. "So you're admitting it! You blew up the chemistry lab on your first day!"

"I did not!" Retorted Linda. "Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-dee did over here!"

"We didn't do that!" The brothers yelled at Linda in unison. "You did!"

The argument went on for so long that all of the bystanders had stopped paying attention. I looked around some more for the inevitable arrival of Jack, who was always one step behind the other two troublemakers so he won't be dragged into their mess.

Surely enough, I saw the disturbingly tall figure of Jack walk in between the arguing foursome, picked up both Todd and Linda by the scruff of their clothing and simply dragged them both out of the argument without even blinking an eye.

He clearly had experience in the art of 'getting them the hell out of there'; as he took the wise decision of stretching his arms outwards to make sure Linda and Todd were properly separated.

He walked towards me, looking as calm as if he was on a daily stroll, instead of carrying two quarrelling demons out of a brawl,

"Sup' Kate!" He exclaimed, dropping the two as fast as he picked them up to give me one of his famous rib-crushing hugs, lifting me up off the ground and shaking me. "It's been a real long time, huh?"

"Grammar, Jack…" Linda mumbled as she rubbed her temples, getting up and smoothing out her hair.

"Doesn't matter!" Jack replied. "The delinquents are reunited!"

"Delinquents?" The twins asked, suddenly highly interested in our conversation and poking their heads out from behind Jack's large back. "What do you mean?"

I scratched the back of my head, and began to awkwardly laugh. After noticing that nobody else was laughing with me, I felt my face become extremely warm.

"I believe that Mr. Kingsley is referring to the group's rather…interesting school record." Kyoya said, literally appearing out of nowhere and making me completely lose my embarrassment as I stared at him, jaw dropped. He was a ninja, a deadly, stealthy, ninja.

"I do look at the student's private records after the Host Club has made contact with them, Miss Farnest." Kyoya said, within a sentence answering the question that had been running through my brain for the past few weeks.

"How the heck do you even get access?" I asked, still mouth gaping like a goldfish.

Kyoya simply gave me a look, as if to say 'you're really going to ask that?', and so I didn't bring it up again.

"Didn't' she tell you?" Linda asked the twins. "We were the trouble makers in Parkinson Boarding School! Also known as the PBS!"

"Like PMS, only it's a school." Todd contributed.

To that, the entire Host Club, minus Kyoya, who already knew about it, and Tamaki and Haruhi, who were absent from the conversation altogether, gave me a stare that spoke more than a thousand questions would ever offer.

I smiled awkwardly again, before saying "What can I say; I wasn't the best apple in PBS."

Clearly that wasn't going to be enough explanation for the four boys, so I sighed and began to explain in full.

"Ok, basically in Parkinson Boarding School, I was kind of a troublemaker. Not to say I was the only one." I indicated to the trio of exchange students, who somehow weren't doing their usual routine of bickering and instead simply listening quietly, standing still and acting seriously out of character. Though once they understood that I was indicating to them, they all gave the Host Club a wide, cheeky grin.

"We skived off lessons practically every day." I continued. "We drank, smoked and snuck into one another's rooms almost every day, despite the fact it was against one of the biggest school rules. We weren't like the other rich kids in the school. In fact, when I was first admitted to the school I was so much of an outcast that these three were the only ones who'd talk to me in the school for the first couple of weeks. I don't regret being friends with them, in fact, I think they were the best thing to come out of the PBS. Still, when my parents decided to move to Japan, I went with them and decided to clean up my act."

"By the way," Linda asked. "How is the 'clean up act for Japan movement' going?"

"You can kind of tell by their reactions." I replied, indicating to the blank face of Mori, the wide eyed face of Hunny, and the flabbergasted expressions of the twins. "I don't even consider it a 'big secret' or anything. I mean, Alex knew about it within a month of us being friends. Still, I'm happy to know that I'm different enough now to shock people."

My mood dramatically fell after mentioning Alex. I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to have called her the day I got the news that the trio were coming to Ouran, and had been so preoccupied with them I had completely forgotten about her. I felt incredibly guilty and sort of let the conversation drop.

Jack must have picked up on this, and changed the subject, he always knew how to change the subject, almost like a sixth sense.

"So, where are we going Kate?" He asked. "I've been dying to see more of Japan since we're actually here!"

"Yeah! Linda was yakking on about it the entire plane ride!" Todd said, poking Linda's cheek much to her protest.

"Only because I spent the entire week before researching!" She retorted, smacking Todd's hand away harshly, after he cradled his hand, pouting a little.

"My God…You were studying?!" I exclaimed, a look of mock horror on my face.

"Sort of." Linda replied. "We weren't allowed to skive the entire week before, or we'd be bunked off the trip, so I spent the entire time on my laptop researching Japanese culture instead of doing actual work."

"They didn't say anything about avoiding work whilst we were in the classroom!" Todd commented, a look of pure satisfaction on his face.

"Well, there's a great sushi place a few blocks away from here…" I said, thinking about the different options I had planned out. "Though it's a bit expensive, so I wouldn't be able to play for everybody…did you guys bring money with you?"

"Kate-chan!" Hunny exclaimed, tugging my sleeve. "We can come too, right?"

"Um…" I replied, feeling awkward again.

"We'll pay!" Hunny said, looking back at Mori for conformation. "Right, Takashi?"

He nodded, meaning that Mori must have agreed. Instantly, knowing that two very rich members of the Host Club would be paying for my meal and for the meals of my bottomless-pit-like-stomachs for friends I didn't mind them coming so much. I smiled and happily agreed.

"Alright, let's get goin-" Linda said, already begging to walk along the pavement, before the twins both grabbed her by the back of her dress and pulled her back into the group.

"Wait for the boss!" The twins said in unison in response to Linda's blank shell of a facial expression. It was a very rare occasion that Linda was stopped after deciding something.

"Not to mention Haruhi." Kyoya contributed, now having lost interest in the conversation and was writing some more information in KIRA.

You know, someday, I'm going to check out what he's really writing in there.

Even so, now it was decided what we would be doing, and all we had to do, was wait for Tamaki and Haruhi to arrive.

What's the worst that could happen?

**So that was that. I'm kind of uncertain about the element of Kate's past personality, so tell me what you think in the reviews!**

**Fangirl429: Indeed, Excalibur is awesome. Thanks for the compliment, though I think the most praise would have to go to me BETA reader, she's seriously a wonder-woman. :)**

**tokiluv: Happy to hear that Kate's friends are at least partially realistic! And sorry it took so long for the chapter to come up!**

**my-forgotten0rose: I'm happy I'm back too!**

**Half-Breed Kid: Glad you love the story as much as I love writing it!**

**Generators and Phantoms: No weird auto-corrections here! I'm so glad that it's not Mary-Sue infested (something that I desperately look about for when re-reading these chapters) and I really hope that the new element of Kate's personality hasn't become Mary-Sue-ish! Hope to hear from you again!**

**Also, tomorrow I'm starting school again (NO!) so updates will slow down a HECK of a lot. Literally every day, I'm going to be coming home late due to out-of-school activities, so sorry about that :(**

**See you space cowboy! **


	15. Chapter 15

**Yes! I'm still alive!**

**Super sorry about the...OVER 2 MONTHS?! Jesus! I'm still surprised I haven't gotten letter bombs or violent protests in the streets!**

**Anyway...erm. Yeah. sorry about the hiatus guys. I'm afraid to say, once again, it's un-BETA-d...but well, at least it's written.**

**Here you go! Enjoy!**

We had waited about 15 minutes for Haruhi and Tamaki to come join us.

I wouldn't have minded so much if Linda and Todd hadn't spent the entire time telling everybody embarrassing stories about the time we went to see a horror film and Jack had to carry me out bridal style due to the bet that the three had made on if I would scream or not. I did…for the entire second half of the film.

"Oh!" Todd exclaimed. "Linda, do you remember that one time in the school play?"

"Yeah!" Linda responded, grinning ear to ear and leaping towards me and Jack. "That time with the script!"

"What time?" The twins said, raising their eyebrows in curiosity, which already scared me. I certainly didn't remember anything all that embarrassing during the school play. Maybe I wasn't thinking hard enough as Todd and Linda clearly did, not to mention the fact Jack was turning bright red.

"Well," Linda began, poking Jack's cheek as his shade of red intensified. "Basically in our second year of boarding school, in year…9, I think?"

"We were in Middle school, basically." I told the Host Club. If I remembered correctly the Japanese education system was like the American education system. It seemed by the look of sudden realization on the boy's faces that I was correct in assuming so.

"Anyway," Linda continued, unfazed by my interruption. "On opening night, the lead girl's limo had blown up in a freak methane explosion-"

"No," I said, whacking Linda round the head. "She had a bad cold because her house had been out of gas for a week, so she couldn't come in."

"Details, Kate!" Linda retorted, rubbing the spot on her head that I had stuck. "Doesn't matter, she couldn't come in, and since Kate wrote the damn adaptive script nobody else knew the part like she did."

"But about halfway through the play she got stage fright. So then she fainted-" Todd added.

"So then Jack, who was playing an extra," Linda said.

"He carried her off stage bridal style!" Todd exclaimed; waving his arms up in the air as a child would on a roller coaster.

Now it was my turn to go bright red. "W-what?!" I exclaimed, storming up to Linda and grabbing her by the collar of her dress. "I don't remember this!"

"Well, you were unconscious at the time," Kyoya commented, not looking at us, though he wasn't scribbling in KIRA either, he was just sort of looking at the contents mundanely. Although, I was a little taken aback by his every so slight, yet somehow noticeable shift in tone, like he was bothered by something…maybe he hadn't heard about the story either? "So that makes sense for you not to know about it."

Yep. Defiantly because he didn't know about it.

"Come to think of it," Jack commented, ruffling my short hair playfully. "I've carried you bridal style practically every time you've passed out. Do you suffer from anaemia or something? You pass out at least twice a year on average…"

At that moment, an overly excited Tamaki, followed by a rather disgruntled Haruhi joined us, interrupting Jack's contemplation, and we explained the plan to them.

"Oh! My beautiful niece is inviting us to have a meal with her childhood friends!" Exclaimed Tamaki, hugging himself so hard I thought he was going to be throwing up rainbows next.

"Just ignore him Kate." Haruhi told me, her face blank. "He's fuelled by attention." After her clear rejection of Tamaki's enthusiasm, he became depressed and began whining to Haruhi.

I nodded, and we went on our way.

**COOL TRANSITION **

"You really do suck at geography." Todd stated, wiping some sweat off his brow as we walked towards the sushi restaurant.

It appeared that the restaurant was actually not so close to Ouran High School, and more close to St Andrews' on the opposite side of town…whoops?

Anyway, basically the time it took to get to the restaurant was about half an hour over what I had originally thought, so now everybody knows that I both have no sense if direction and no sense of timing. Funny.

"Hey! No need to complain, we can see the restaurant now!" I said, picking up the pace just slightly as we reached the sushi restaurant and opening the door, allowing the Host Club members and the troublesome trio into the place.

The restaurant was a fairy small place, with about 12 wooden tables scattered about the room. The wallpaper was a simple, yet rather elegant cherry-blossom print that really lit up the room. There was a bar at the back of the restaurant, and a woman cleaning the marble top behind that. Noticing the presence of customers, she scrambled out of the bar area and bowed in our direction, showed us to our seats and jogged off to go get the menus.

Linda, Tom and Jack ogled at the place, scanning every aspect of their first truly Japanese experience. Their eyes were wide with awe, and I smiled slightly at their reaction to the restaurant. I thought that was how I must had looked when I first moved to Japan, it was funny that nowadays I didn't even give aspects of Japanese culture even a second glance. I guess the culture shock had worn off after a while.

The Host Club, minus Haruhi of course, and Kyoya who didn't even give the place a second glance, didn't seem all that impressed. Maybe it was because of their upper-class upbringing or something, but they just kept looking at the table, then to me, then to the door.

It was as if they were saying _'What you mean I have to sit at this table?!' _then looking to me saying _'You can't be serious'_ then looking to the door saying _'Let's get out of here'_.

Already I was regretting letting them come. Damn Hunny and his adorable golden eyes!

At least Hunny and Mori were…_trying_ to be polite, and only did the rich-person-is-startled-by-wooden-table routine once before deciding to sit down anyway, joining Haruhi and Kyoya. Linda, Jack and Todd soon followed suit. This would be an interesting afternoon.

Apart from that one small issue, the rest of the meal went by smoothly. The Host Club got used to the plain restaurant's surroundings in time and it seemed that even the hard to please twins were rather content with their sushi, although they did remark about 5 times throughout the meal that they still considered it 'commoner's sushi' and that they would probably have to get a health check-up by their personal doctors afterwards in case of the low quality infecting their digestive systems.

Honestly, there's no way to please everybody.

"So, how old do you have to be to drink in this fine eastern country of yours?" Linda asked, her tone seemingly innocent yet the glint I noticed in her eyes meant she was up to something else.

"It's 20." Kyoya replied, forcing both Todd and Linda to slam their heads on the wooden table in protest.

"What?!" Exclaimed Todd and Linda, their foreheads bright red from slamming the table. "B-but that's so-"

"Guys." I interrupted, sighing as I realised what they were up to. "We're not getting members of the best high school in Japan completely $^&% faced, ok?"

Jack raised an eyebrow and stared at me for a few moments, before his composure shattered into a million pieces and he burst out laughing.

The rest of the Host Club were pretty confused, as expected, but this time I didn't even bother trying to explain and simply grinned back at Jack's bright, ecstatic face as it began to go red with lack of oxygen.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Kyoya asked, ignoring Jack's outburst, closing Kira and giving a disturbingly convincing gentlemanly smile directed at Linda.

I swear to God I witnessed the very moment Linda's heart, and composure melted away with that smile. Her cheeks were tinted pink and she avoided Kyoya's gaze as she replied "W-Well…we're going to try and get some alco-"

"I dare Kate to buy it!" Todd yelled, dramatically pointing at me, elbowing Linda in the face as he did so.

"Me too!" Exclaimed Hunny, throwing his bunny up in the air and looking up at Mori for conformation. Mori seemed to approve of the plan, and nodded as he looked down at Hunny's expectant eyes. It seemed like I would have to do it. Crap.

Mori and Hunny then turned their heads in perfect synchronization, though their expressions were completely different. Hunny's eyes were wide and the excitement and seeming naivety shone through his facial expression whereas Mori's expression was more of an indifferent, 'Well, I guess you've got to do it' kind of look.

What did Alex see in this guy again?

Thinking about Alex made my stomach churn, and suddenly I felt like I needed some fresh air. I sighed, stood up and pushed my chair back.

"Fine." I said, not even trying to hide the sudden wave of tiredness I felt washing over me. "I'll go get some drinks. I'll need an ID though…any ideas?"

"I've kept the old one you had while you were in England, does it work out here?" Linda said, looking at me with a slightly worried gaze.

"Don't think so." I replied, scratching my head. "I haven't bought alcohol though since I moved here, so I wouldn't know."

"I'll go with you then." Kyoya suggested, getting up and tucking his chair in. I seriously wanted to protest, insist that he sat back down and finished his meal, but something in his tone of voice stopped me from doing so. Maybe it was always the fact that he always sounded so calm, but I felt that he was in complete control of the situation about to take place, and I was not.

What surprised me more was that I was ok with it.

I nodded, took my ID off Linda and gave everyone a quick wave goodbye as I left the restaurant with Kyoya.

As we walked down the road away from the restaurant, it suddenly dawned upon me that I had no idea where I was going. In fact, where the heck do you even buy alcohol in Japan? I've heard there are a couple of vending machines that sell it if you have an ID, but heaven knows where the nearest one is. The best bet would be to go to a convenience store and get something there. But, once again I had no idea where they are. I kept silent though and Kyoya continued walking with me for about another three minutes until he stopped and looked at me, eyebrow raised.

"You don't know where we're going, do you Miss Farnest." Kyoya commented, looking at me directly in the eyes, I think he already knew the answer.

I shook my head. Something about him makes it pretty hard to lie to nowadays, and if he knew anything I would rather know it now.

Kyoya sighed, then took out his phone. He had spent no more than a minute looking at the screen before he shut it and began walking.

"There's a convenience store just down this street." He explained, turning right and making his way down a brightly lit alleyway. "Follow me."

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me do so and started to jog to catch up with him. I chuckled to myself slightly as I did so, thinking of the idea of seeing Kyoya slightly drunk. Something about that image was both hilarious and really disturbing, but I didn't think much further about the idea.

Little did I know that my little idea was going to make the night…quite unforgettable.

**I'm sorry to say this, but at least for the next week don't expect anything. I've got a bucket load of mock exams coming up next week...akgfdjfbgg writer feels!**

**Half-Breed Kid: You, my friend, are AWESOME! Thanks for lovin' it like MacDonald's! I really enjoyed writing Kate's English mates, so it's fantastic to hear you liked them too!**

**s****ilentmidnightdeath: Yep...school stuff sucks... Thanks for the review! I'll TRY to keep to regularity this time!**

**Fangirl429: Kyoya isn't just a ninja...he is KING of the shadows! LOL! Thanks so much! (Though that chapter REALLY irritated me with the amount of rewrites I did!)**

**Trulzxoxo: So glad you like the story! Alex and Kate are really interesting, though a bit challenging to keep them within Mary-Sue non-limits...glad you like them! sorry about the long wait for an update though!**

**Regin: So glad you like, love and lust it all at the same time (Just like me with Britain from Hetalia...odd.) Sorry about the late update!**

**See you next time!**


	16. Chapter 16

***Looks up at update time* IT'S BEEN OVER A YEAR?!**

**SWEET JESUS ON A T-REX!**

* * *

><p>It all began when we tried to buy alcohol.<p>

We arrived at the convenience store in no time, with Kyoya in the lead. He was a surprisingly fast walker considering the fact he must have been wearing the uncomfortable, formally stiff shoes of Ouran's uniform. I had to nearly jog half of the time to keep up with him.

We entered the store, and immediately found the aisle for alcoholic beverages. At that moment, Kyoya decided to depart from my side, like the ninja that he was without me noticing until I turned to ask him if the drinks were expensive end ended up finding myself looking at a blank wall.

"Dammit…" I muttered, turning back and walking down the aisle.

I walked about 3 steps when I saw her. The one person I didn't want to see in the entire world at this time. The one person I'd forgotten to call. The one person I'd been avoiding.

Alex stared at me from across the aisle, her crystal blue eyes wide with surprise as she stood there, shopping in hand.

"Kate?"

"Alex."

"Hey…" She said, walking towards me. I stood there, like a rabbit in the headlights, preparing for that Optimus Prime of a truck to smash my face in.

"Hey." I replied quickly.

"What'cha lookin' at?" She asked, turning to the alcoholic beverages I was beside. "I thought you'd quit underage drinking…?"

"Um…yeah, I did." I told her, sighing inwardly that she didn't bring up the events last Friday. I turned to the shelves of alcohol. "I've got some people over though, do you remember me telling you about my old boarding school?"

"Yep. Parkinson, right? The British equivalent of hell." She replied in a jovial manner.

"You'll never guess who literally turned up on my doorstep…" I told her, grabbing a random bottle of vodka off of the shelf and rummaging in my pockets for my wallet.

"No way! Your old friends are in Japan?! I'm so meeting them! We have to compare notes!"

"Notes?"

"I need notes on the pranks they've pulled so I can start afresh for April fools!" She explained, throwing her hands up in the air with excitement. "When will you next see them?!"

"Now, actually." I told her, going over to the counter and flashing my ID. "Do you want to come meet them? The host guys are there too. Actually….Kyoya should be somewhere around here, if I'm not mistaken…"

"Would I ever! Let's go!" She exclaimed, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the convenience store.

"Wait! Kyoya's still in-"

"Shall we go ladies?" A calm, deep and measured voice said from behind me, making me jump out of my skin with fright. By the time I calmed down, I realized Kyoya was here.

"Hello Miss Greenwood." He remarked as we walked back to the others. "How have you been?"

"Fine," She replied, smirking to herself as she continued to drag me along. "and yourself?"

It was at that moment I finally put two and two together. That sly demon Kyoya somehow knew where Alex was and planned for us to meet! Or, even worse, the two conspired together!

'_What the hell were they thinking when they planned something like this?!'_ I mentally screamed. _'What else have they been planning behind my back?!'_

As mad as I felt though, a small but noteworthy part of me was thankful that I had encountered Alex that day. I felt like I would have kept avoiding her if we didn't meet at that moment, so planned or not, I was grateful.

Only a small part of me though, the rest of me was still fuming.

**COOL TRANSITION**

The inclusion of alcohol to my friends' 'little gathering' certainly spiced things up a bit.

It became apparent that despite the millions of champagne bottles the Ouran kids must have drank at their fancy dinner parties, not a single one of them had any tolerance for alcohol. Looking around the trashed living room of my house, I made a note never to invite rich kids to a binge-drinking fest again. Sofa cushions were taken apart and tossed onto the floor, toilet paper had been strewn about the house like some kind of movie, and most notable, our curtains were missing. At some point or another, if I remember correctly, the twins had gotten to a point in which their perception of reality had been altered, and they believed themselves to be climbing up mount Everest, when in fact they were scaling the curtains in the front hall, pulling them off the rails in the process.

To be fair though, I can't really be on my high horse all that much either; at the time, I was indeed tipsy, and running into doors whilst giggling my head off quite like everyone else. If I remember correctly, the only people who had been moderately calm were Haruhi, who was quietly sipping on a soft drink in the corner of the room, waving off Tamaki's slurred advances indifferently, and Mori, who remained stoic as ever sipping on a beer. Did he even try the other drinks? I can't remember seeing him with anything else, but I found it surprising to see him as a beer-drinking kind of person. Perhaps he never had the chance to, as the entire evening he was attempting to restrain Hunny, who if I remember only had one glass of ginger beer, was running up the walls and climbing on every person imaginable.

Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. All I needed to say is that everyone had gotten plastered, and thus, from experience, I believed that they probably wouldn't remember what happened in the morning.

The events of that night had been pretty fuzzy for me too, but there is one specific event, I remember with disturbing clarity. The memory is like an HD photograph amongst out of focus images, and is likely one I would never, no matter how many times I attempt to cover it up, forget.

**COOL TRANSITION**

It was in the middle of the party, that point in which all the people around you begin to blur together into a messy crowd. I stumbled, glass in hand, through the bustle of people, blinking far too frequently to have any hope of seeing straight, bumping into what felt like a thousand figures before finally reaching my destination.

The roof.

I opened the door, vision blurring, and stumbled out into the open air. The cold breeze was like having a bucket of ice chucked over me, and my eyes widened, staggering at the slightest touch of that cold gust. I reached for a handle to steady myself, and that's when I saw him.

On the other end of the rooftop, there staggered a distant figure of a man, dark hair ruffled to submission, covering his eyes as his head dipped toward the ground, swaying as if the breeze were a hurricane.

His head jerked up at the slam of the door, and we walked toward one another. I felt slightly, ever so slightly more sober at the sight of the man.

When he spoke, his words were slurred, but no so much that I couldn't understand him.

"I…I am not…drunk!" he declared, grabbing my shoulders as I attempted to contain my tipsy giggles. "Kate Farnest stop laughing!"

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, sinking to the floor as my giggles increased, "I…didn't see you as the type…to get smashed is all!"

"You're as bad as Haruhi when…when we cross-dressed!" he blurted out, before also succumbing to the absurdity of the situation and bursting out laughing.

We sat against a wall that lined the staircase which lead to the roof. There, we talked. About everything and nothing, too intoxicated to even care what we said would embarrass us. A while later I discovered that when Kyoya was drunk, he turned into the worst keeper of secrets of all time. He said everything he thought without even a moment's hesitation.

"-and Tamaki! What an idiot! How...how the hell am I even friends with that fool?!" he ranted, his gestures animated and his voice louder than I'd ever heard it before. "In fact…how the hell am I friends with any of them?! A crossdresser? A set of twins? A Lolita and a dude that I'm not even sure speaks Japanese he's so quiet! And…Tamaki?!"

I laughed once again, unable to contain myself, "You tell me," I yelled to the skies, "you keep writing it down in that damn KIRA of yours! What the hell do you even write in there, huh?!"

It was then he turned to me, apparently completely ignorant to my declaration, and he said, in hushed tones.

"And you, Kate…"

I paused, turned to him. Noticed he was unnaturally close, but had no intention of moving.

"I don't…_get_ you," he declared.

And that was when it happened.

That was the moment.

We collided.

People often describe in novels that the first kiss is like a set of fireworks going off in your mouth, or sweet honey being poured into you as your lips collide, or sweet, plump lips locking into place like they were meant to be there, forever.

My first kiss was nothing but awkward, uneasy, and overall sloppy. Neither of us seemed to have an idea what we were doing as our lips smashed together, and when we finally did part it appeared that said fireworks were still in the basement, or the honey was still in the jar, or the lips just weren't feeling it today.

Kyoya got up, quickly, and stumbled away without looking back. I watched him go, remaining where I was, not calling out, not daring to follow.

My first kiss was nothing special.

So how was it still able to blow me away; to the point where my legs could no longer support me in that moment?

That remains a mystery to even me.

* * *

><p><strong>Woah guys...it's been over a yEAR?! Are you even still reading this thing?!<strong>

**Erm...well. Reading back on this story; I'm not proud of it. I, in all honesty, have NO IDEA how to write a romance, but hey, this is practice? I've decided to try and continue it, but updates shall be irregular.**

**I know where I want to go from here, it's just a question of tying up loose ends here...which somehow I've got a lot of!**

**So, yeah. A somewhat delayed comeback, but to be fair it may/may not have been worth the wait!**

**See you around!**


End file.
